Jordan Times
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Workshop on cultural heritage
management begins Friday
AMMAN (JT) — An international workshop on “Cultural Heritage Management in Times
of Armed Conflicts” is scheduled to take place in Amman between April 15-17,
according to a statement released by the European Commission Delegation to
Jordan.
EuropeAid, through the Regional Management and Support Unit of the Euromed
Heritage Programme, is organising the workshop to stimulate the debate on the
protection of cultural heritage in times of war with special focus on the Euro-
Mediterranean region. Several prominent representatives of the
Euro-Mediterranean community, officials from UNESCO, ICCROM, ICOMOS, ICOM, as
well as three international experts in this field — Franz Schuller, Joris Kila
and Patrick Boylan — will participate in the workshop, the statement said.
The escalation in tensions registered in the Mediterranean region during the
last two decades calls on cultural heritage operators and stakeholders to
respond with a realistic and effective action in the protection of cultural
heritage in areas of conflict, the statement said.
The destruction of a huge quantity of heritage sites and monuments registered in
areas of declared and undeclared wars, such as in the cases of Cyprus, the
former Yugoslavia, Israel and Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan etc., are
increasingly attracting public attention on the problem related to the
protection of cultural heritage endangered under uncontrolled armed events.
The 50th anniversary of the signing of the Hague Convention for the Protection
of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict was recently celebrated and
the Second Protocol of the Convention entered into force in 20 states on March
9, 2004.
However, to date only Austria, Cyprus and Spain, among the Euromed partner
countries, have ratified it.
The workshop will result in a follow-up at both national and international
levels to actively support the achievement of the targets established in the 1st
and 2nd Protocols to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural
Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, the statement concluded.