UN-sponsored experts draw up blueprint to safeguard Iraq’s cultural heritage

Girding itself for the “immense and vital” challenge of safeguarding Iraq’s cultural heritage, a United Nations-sponsored group of international experts today drew up a seven-point blueprint for comprehensive conservation, rehabilitation, capacity building, training and coordination.

The International Coordination Committee for the Safeguarding of the Cultural Heritage of Iraq, established under the joint auspices of the Iraqi authorities and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), concluded its first meeting today at the Organization’s Paris headquarters, chaired by Iraqi Minister for Culture Moufid al Jazairi.

UNESCO became deeply involved in efforts to preserve Iraq’s cultural heritage, with priceless antiquities stretching back 7,000 years, after last year’s war when looters laid waste to several museums, libraries and archaeological sites throughout the country.

“Iraq’s entire culture, from its archaeological sites, museums and cultural institutions, libraries and archives, intangible cultural heritage as well as the arts and cultural industries” has been affected by more than 10 years of embargo and conflict, UNESCO Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura told the two-day meeting. “The challenge, therefore, is immense and vital.”

It is estimated that Iraq has over 10,000 archaeological sites, though only one-seventh of them have been studied. Before it was pillaged in April 2003, the Museum of Baghdad included some 100,000 objects bearing witness to the greatness of the civilizations that succeeded each other in Mesopotamia, the “land between two rivers.”

The Committee, whose main task is to provide advice on measures to improve and reinforce international cooperation, comprises 25 international experts including three Iraqis. Its members, proposed by UNESCO Member States, are appointed in their personal capacity by Mr. Matsuura.

The objectives the meeting set include: assisting the Ministry of Culture in institutional reform, capacity building and training; devising a comprehensive museum conservation plan; instituting a cooperation mechanism and network of international partners to rehabilitate the National Library and archives; and coordinating international action and channelling international aid, both bilateral and multilateral.

Other goals seek to enforce and strengthen national legislation on cultural heritage; devising a national programme for recording and mapping archaeological sites; and sustaining and enhancing oral traditions and performing arts.