UNESCO

© Mohammed Huwais/AFP
Several traditional
houses were
destroyed in
June in the Old
City of Sana’a
(Yemen), a World
Heritage site.
Following the adoption of an Action
Plan for the Safeguarding of Yemen’s
Cultural Heritage, UNESCO prepared rapid
assessment forms for historical buildings,
archaeological sites and museum
collections in Yemen to be used in the
field, and also developed a corresponding
mobile phone application for electronic
damage assessment. In close cooperation
with the General Organisation for the
Preservation of Historic Cities in Yemen
(GOPHCY), UNESCO has revised the GIS
database of the Old City of Sana’a and its
quarters of Rawda and Bir al Azab.
Tunisia
On 18 March, just as news was breaking
of a deadly attack at the Bardo Museum in
Tunis, which killed 21 people and injured
about 50 others, the Director-General and
François Hollande, President of France, met at
the Louvre Museum to call for the protection of
culture under attack in the world. The objective
of this meeting was to reiterate the urgent
need to safeguard the cultural heritage of Syria
and Iraq, with President Hollande and the
Director-General also firmly denouncing this
attack on a symbol of the openness and cultural
diversity of Tunisian society. The President
and the Director-General further condemned
the deliberate destruction of several cultural
heritage sites in Iraq by extremists as war
crimes, saying, ‘Minorities are being persecuted
and their heritage destroyed along with
everything that embodies diversity and free
thought.‘ President Hollande commended
UNESCO’s efforts to defend cultural heritage
and promised France’s support.
Libya
Instability and conflict have affected
many parts of Libya throughout the year
and, most worryingly, the activities of
ISIL/Daesh continued to accelerate.
In this difficult context, the UNESCO
Office for Libya has carried out eight
training workshops for staff of the
Libyan Department of Antiquities and
other professionals, including the
management of risks to cultural heritage
in the emergency context, museum
management and first-aid, cross-border
cooperation in the fight against illicit
trafficking as a source of terrorist
financing, preventive conservation and
risk preparedness, security at museums
and sites.
57