The imperiled past: appreciating our cultural heritage.

In the turmoil following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, a few days were enough for Iraqi looters to ravage 7,000 years of human history.

Despite the warnings of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) experts to heed the lessons of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, at the close of which nine Iraqi museums were plundered, a new crime was committed against Iraq's cultural heritage. Looters devastated the National Museum in Baghdad, as well as many other homes of cultural heritage, such as the National Archives, the Manuscripts Centre and the Baghdad Library. Priceless treasures of Mesopotamian art were lost among the thousands of stolen and damaged artefacts of the Museum. Still missing are hundreds of cuneiform clay tablets--dating from the late fourth millennium BC to the first century AD and which bore witness to the establishment of the first legal codes and the invention of writing--as well as famous gold treasures from the Royal Cemetery at Ur and some of the earliest tools humans ever made.

The cultural plunder is not only a tragedy for the Iraqis who have lost precious records of the achievements of their ancestors, but also a "wound inflicted to all humankind", as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. Indeed, the damage done to their cultural heritage is an incalculable loss of knowledge about one of the earliest periods of human culture. The Tigris-Euphrates Valley is the cradle of a number of major civilizations, starting from the fifth millennium BC, and the scene of events sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike

Because cultural heritage constitutes a gift of past generations to all humanity, it is the shared responsibility to preserve and transmit its heritage to the next generations. Since its creation in 1946, UNESCO has worked hard to protect tire natural and cultural heritage of humanity and prevent the illicit traffic of cultural artefacts. It started building a specific legal foundation to support its cultural action in 1954 with the signing of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. In 1970, this Convention was strengthened by the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property.

It was complemented in 1995 by the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law's Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects (UNIDROIT Convention)

In 1959, UNESCO launched its first international campaign and helped the Government of Egypt safeguard the Abu Simbel temples in the Nile Valley. These treasures of ancient Egyptian civilization were threatened by flooding caused by the construction of the Aswan High Dam With some fifty countries donating half of the $80 million needed for the rescue, the campaign was an unexpected success. The temples were dismantled, moved to dry ground, reassembled and eventually saved This demonstrated that the conservation of the world's common heritage concerned all countries and encouraged UNESCO to give legal support to the global movement, A few years later, it initiated the preparation of a draft convention. The UNESCO General Conference agreed upon a single text and adopted on 16 November 1972 the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. To date, 159 countries have ratified the Convention and 24 international campaigns are currently being carried out worldwide.

The Convention translates into practical terms and concrete actions the double dimension of culture: as the expression of a particular people and of humanity as a whole. On the one hand, it requires signatory countries to conserve their own national heritage; on the other, it gives them the right to submit nominations of sites within their national territory for inclusion in the World Heritage List. Once a site is listed as part of the world heritage, its protection becomes the shared responsibility of the international community, which is expected to provide funds as well as technical assistance and professional training to preserve the site. This distinction also enables a site to be added to the List of World Heritage in Danger, in which case, emergency assistance is made available, mainly in increased funding.

In July 2003, the cultural landscape and archaeological remains of the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan were simultaneously inscribed on both the World Heritage List and the List of the World Heritage in Danger. Containing Buddhist monastic ensembles and sanctuaries, it is the second Afghan site listed on both after the 2002 inscription of the Minaret of Jam, another Afghan endangered treasure. Since 1999, UNESCO has developed several projects to respond to the diverse threats to the country's heritage. Against the theft and illicit trade of cultural artefacts looted from the Museum in Kabul, UNESCO has drawn up an inventory of the remains of destroyed or damaged objects and has stored them away. To stem and reverse the deterioration of Afghan sites and monuments, the agency has called in experts to assess the damage and propose an action plan.

With the help of local non-governmental organizations, UNESCO has started preservation and restoration projects to consolidate the basis of the Minaret of Jam. However, the damage inflicted to a cultural heritage site is sometimes irreparable The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues by the Taliban in March 2001 tragically demonstrates that prevention is as important as restoration for safeguarding cultural heritage Along with creating inventories and improving surveillance and conservation conditions, prevention must focus on educating people about the meaning of cultural heritage As Anna Paolini, Chief of the UNESCO Cultural Heritage Unit for Arab Countries and the former Yugoslavia, explains: "People should believe in the importance of their past and be aware of the meaning of their own culture" (see page 73).

Raising awareness about the meaning of cultural heritage is an integral part of the UNESCO strategy for safer guarding it. The agency seeks to create a sense of ownership, mainly by involving local organizations at the grass-roots level and by educating young people to treasure their past. In particular, the agency focuses on training the local population and building their capacities, enabling them to safeguard their national heritage It trains guards to monitor sites, police officers to recognize stolen artefacts, and museum staff to assemble inventories and use advanced security equipment At the same time, it disseminates information about cultural heritage to schools that are part of the "Associated Schools Project Network" (see box on page 71). These initiatives have already contributed to saving sites and artefacts in many countries, including Colombia, Egypt, Greece and even Iraq, where one of the most valuable the Vase of Warka--which was stolen from the Baghdad Museum, was returned in June 2003. However, for future safeguarding, the world needs to understand the meaning of cultural heritage and appreciate its role in history. As the expression of the artistic and intellectual genius that unites humanity, cultural heritage is a treasure to cherish for the culture of peace it breeds.

Th World Heritage Emblem, designed by Michel Olyff, symbolizes the interdependence of cultural and natural sites: the central square is a form created by people and the circle represents nature, the two being intimately linked. The emblem is round like the world, but at the same time it is a symbol of protection.

World Heritage in Young Hands

Safeguarding the future of cultural heritage is an arduous road, but not a deadlock. However, it must begin with raising the awareness of tomorrow's decision makers about the continuing threats facing the world cultural heritage and enabling them to respond to those threats.

With this objective in mind the UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network (ASPnet) and the World Heritage Centre in 1994 launched the "World Heritage in Young Hands" project, which distributes an educational kit for teachers in associated schools to introduce world heritage in classrooms. The kit proposes classroom and extra-curricular activities, as well as student activity sheets, and provides a series of enlarged photographs of world heritage sites, a poster, world heritage map, stickers and thematic overhead projection sheets to be used for classroom discussions. In addition, the project fosters intercultural learning and exchange by bringing together students and teachers to UNESCO World Heritage Youth Fora. While these fora give students a chance to meet people from other countries and discover their new roles in heritage conservation, they allow teachers to debate new educational approaches and establish networks for future development of world heritage activities. To date, nine fora have been held around the world since the first, held in June 1995 in Bergen, Norway, and the network already includes 700 associated schools in more than 130 countries that have experimented and adapted the educational kit

It is imperative that this network of associated schools for the preservation of cultural heritage keeps expanding worldwide, because the future of cultural heritage lies in the hands of the young and aware.

'People of the Region Have Only Started to Recover Their Own Culture'

Anna Paolini, Chief of the UNESCO Cultural Heritage Unit for Arab States and the former Yugoslavia, spoke with Sarah Caftan of the UN Chronicle about the Organization's efforts to safeguard cultural heritage.

On the local response to UNESCO programmes in Iraq

Iraq has an enormous and incredibly rich heritage, both tangible and intangible (music, folklore, etc.). Before the war and at the beginning of the embargo, Iraq hosted the best poets of the Middle East. Iraqis were and are still very concerned about their heritage. Food is, of course, a priority, but people strongly want the museum to reopen because it would give them confidence that the situation is returning to normalcy. Local people guard archaeological sites and are extremely proud of being involved in protecting their own heritage. They have a very strong attachment to their roots and heritage by which they identify themselves.

UNESCO has carried out two missions for cultural heritage: one in May and another at the end of June. At both local and institutional levels (Department of Antiquity, the museums, Ministry of Culture, the section of the interim government in charge of cultural heritage under the Coalition Provisional Authority), missions welcomed and expressed their desire for UNESCO to coordinate cultural heritage activities in the region.

On preventing the destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq

Against looting, UNESCO signed an agreement with the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) for the establishment of a database on cultural property stolen in Iraq, based on information supplied by UNESCO and other national and international organizations. INTERPOL will dispatch worldwide this information on stolen objects through a CD-ROM that it has produced and has been updating every two months since 2001, and through the Internet. In addition, UNESCO trains local guards to recognize stolen artefacts and reinforce guarding of sites where looting is still going on. It is also rehabilitating the security system it had provided in 2000, which allowed the National Museum to reopen in 2001.

On international partnerships in safeguarding cultural heritage

In Iraq, the international community has provided a lot of financial and practical assistance. What is missing is more coordination among the diverse organizations and international sources to avoid disconnected actions and duplication of efforts. I believe UNESCO should play this coordinating role; it should not implement all projects, but rather coordinate, monitor and control their developments. As a matter of fact, it is launching a private donor campaign for fund-raising, and the UNESCO Director General opened a special account for Member States' contributions.

On UNESCO partnerships in the field

UNESCO works with Member States' sponsorship. Governments usually approach the UN agency through its National Commissions, either when they have already identified their needs or when they want us to assess them, and then propose an action plan. Activities such as training courses are implemented locally in partnership with NGOs, universities and other local institutions. However, Governments are always aware about the activities their NGOs and institutions are covering and implementing.

On "Work in Progress: The Rebirth of Kabul's Museum"

This exhibition is a great initiative. It gives people confidence that life is going back to normalcy while giving them the means to work in a decent environment and make a real change. In Iraq, we organized in July something similar--the Baghdad Museum reopened a couple of rooms to the public and exposed the Treasure of Nimrod for the first time. Even if it was only for a few hours, it gave Iraqis a sign that activities were going on to re-establish normal life. Cultural heritage can play an important role in rebuilding nations that have been devastated by war; it is a matter of pride; people recognize their identity and roots in it. Therefore, as they recover their cultural heritage, they can recover a sense of national identity.

On the importance of raising people's awareness

In Western countries, it seems that the concept of safeguarding cultural heritage is more easily absorbed. In the Arab countries, however, cultural heritage is not part of children's academic curriculum. To build future generations there, they need to be aware of their own culture; therefore, it is extremely important that awareness-raising starts with primary school children and not only with adults, through media, pamphlets and so on. In most Arab countries, especially in the Gulf region, their cultural heritage was destroyed when oil prices boomed between the 1950s and 1970s. Today, the people of the region have only started to recover their own culture and, I would say, even their own identities, for example by purchasing collections and being more informed about the value of their heritage.

On disseminating educational material about cultural heritage

In addition to working on school curricula, UNESCO has a programme called "Associated School Project Network", which is moving in this direction. The agency has a list of associated schools to which it disseminates information and educational material about its activities. The World Heritage Centre has prepared a kit with activities for students and training material for teachers so they can teach about cultural heritage.