Irina Bokova, the director general of Unesco, will discuss “Protecting Culture in Times of War” at the Forum for New Diplomacy convened by the IHT and the Académie Diplomatique Internationale in Paris on Dec. This is why, for culture also, there is a responsibility to protect. The fact is, protecting culture is protecting people - it is about protecting their way of life and providing them with essential resources to rebuild when war ends. We often hear that protecting culture is a luxury better left for another day, that people must come first. We need to think big once again, to protect culture under attack. The world thought big when the convention was adopted in 1972. But without culture, peace cannot be lasting. And it is true that culture alone is not enough to build peace. This might sound high-minded compared to the terrible news we hear every day from conflict zones. We saw the same power during the restoration of the Koguryio Tombs complex in North Korea, undertaken with the financial support of South Korea. I saw this personally when Unesco helped restore the Old Bridge in Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovina, destroyed during the war in the 1990s. Unesco works across the globe to harness the power of culture to bring people together and foster reconciliation. Lastly, the best way to protect culture in conflict is to make the most of it to prevent conflicts, and make it a pillar of peace building. Today, we are teaming up with Norway to safeguard the manuscripts held in the museum of Bamako. This is why I contacted the coalition of states to urge all parties to protect Libya’s cultural heritage during the military intervention last year. But the significant results we got after the museum of Baghdad was pillaged in 2003 showed what broad cooperation can do. Attracting too much attention to culture can expose it to new risks. Second, we must build stronger “coalitions for culture” through tighter coordination with all partners involved, including armed forces, Interpol, the World Customs Organization and other actors, such as international auction houses. The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, declared that the destruction of Timbuktu’s shrines was indeed “a war crime.” The world must now act accordingly. Security Council about the situation in Syria. Today, the destruction of cultural heritage is part of the debates in the U.N. Already in 2001, the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia included the destruction of cultural heritage in its case regarding the 1991 attack against the Croatian port of Dubrovnik. Implementing legal texts means also bringing cultural war crimes to justice. All of this calls for more resources and experts on the ground. This means transmitting geographical coordinates of protected sites to military forces and recalling their obligation to keep this heritage a “safe place.” Most soldiers have never heard of the cultural conventions - they need training they need simple and accurate information. Unesco is helping Mali to undertake damage assessment and reconstruction, and to secure museum collections. It deprives them of collective memory banks as well as precious social and economic assets. Destroying culture hurts societies for the long term. This is about values, identities and belonging. We are not just talking about stones and building. Some cultural sites have an outstanding universal value - they belong to all and must be protected by all. When cultural heritage is attacked anywhere in the world, like the Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo and World Heritage sites damaged by severe bombing in Syria, each of us is shocked this is a loss to all humanity. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization stands for a different vision. For the spokesmen of Ansar Dine, culture is narrowly defined. This statement captures the challenge we face. Infidels must not get involved in our business.” On July 7, in the wake of the destruction of the sacred shrines in Timbuktu - a Unesco World Heritage site - the spokesman of Ansar Dine, one of the Islamist groups controlling northern Mali, declared to the press that “there is no world heritage.
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