UNESCO today held a consultation with Iraqi and international cultural heritage experts and agreed on an Emergency Response Action Plan to safeguard Iraq’s rich and diverse cultural heritage.

The Plan is intended to secure the cooperation of all stakeholders, including national and international organizations, humanitarian relief workers in the field, art dealers, international museums and law enforcement authorities, in safeguarding Iraq’s heritage.

Participants highlighted a range of threats facing Iraq’s heritage: damage caused by armed conflict, deliberate destruction, illicit excavation of archaeological sites and illicit trafficking in artefacts, whether from museum collections or from uncontrolled excavations. They also voiced concern for the country’s rich libraries and manuscript collections. Nevertheless, the experts pointed out that there were many gaps in information available which are making it impossible to draw a comprehensive inventory of the state of conservation of Iraqi heritage today.

The Action Plan also aims to ensure the implementation of international agreements on the protection of cultural heritage, notably The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Properties in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954) and its Protocols, the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property; the World Heritage Convention (1972). It also seeks to enforce the ban on trafficking in cultural objects put in force by UN Security Council Resolution 1483 of 2003.

The agreed Action Plan furthermore urges close monitoring of the state of conservation of heritage and training of conservation professionals while helping those in place prepare emergency measures for the possible relocation of moveable heritage, including libraries.

The emergency meeting was convened by the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, against a background of increasing violence and instability in Iraq. Ms Bokova explained that “humanitarian and security concerns are inseparable from culture. Protecting the lives of people, their cultural heritage and identity go hand in hand,” she said, pledging that “UNESCO will continue mobilizing the United Nations Organization and the whole international community to safeguard Iraq’s cultural heritage with particular emphasis on the fight against illicit trafficking in cultural property.”

Chaired by Kishore Rao, Director of UNESCO’s Heritage Division and interim Assistant UNESCO Director-General for Culture, the meeting brought together Iraqi experts and representatives of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation of and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), the International Council on Museums (ICOM), International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), Interpol, the Blue Shield and UNESCO.

Gy?rgy Busztin, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, spoke to participants over the telephone from Baghdad and pledged his support to the Action Plan saying that “cultural heritage preservation will contribute to a better, peaceful future for the country,”