UNESCO. General Conference; 30th; Records ... - unesdoc - Unesco

In order to promote the goals set by the International Year of the Culture of Peace in the forthcoming
biennium Croatia will continue to support and participate in the Associated Schools Project (ASP). At present,
the Croatian network of ASP schools includes approximately 20, mainly primary and secondary schools, their
main concern being related to world heritage, environmental and human rights issues.
We need to congratulate the World Heritage Centre which, in coordination with ASP, has prepared and
published the Educational Resource Kit “World Heritage in Young Hands”. The kit will certainly contribute to
raising awareness of the importance of safeguarding heritage for future generations. The kit is currently being
evaluated in seven schools located on the sites included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in Croatia. In the
framework of the same project, after hosting the first European World Heritage Forum in Dubrovnik in 1996,
Croatia hosted the Workshop of European World Heritage Coordinators in July 1998 with financial support from
the World Heritage Fund.
Throughout the preceding biennium, Croatian schools have actively participated in programmes
concerning the Mediterranean region. The Croatian Commission for UNESCO, the Ministry of Education and
Sports and the Croatian Man and the Biosphere Committee have taken part in carrying out the South-Eastern
Mediterranean Environmental Project (SEMEP). Approximately 30 Croatian schools have created a network
which will continue to work on environmental issues at national and international level. In order to achieve better
visibility in this field of activity UNESCO should foresee joint actions with other major environmental education
projects in Europe and the world, such as GLOBE and SEAM which benefit from a continuous financial and
logistic support.
Within the project “Peace and human rights education for Croatian primary schools”, launched in the
previous biennium, an International Symposium was held in Dubrovnik in November 1998 with the participation
of representatives from the Council of Europe, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania,
Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States of America. The project
itself, which was finalized at the end of March 1999, was carried out under the auspices of UNESCO, with
financial help from the Government of the Netherlands, and supported by the National Committee for Human
Rights Education set up by the Croatian Government. The project has produced a model of peace and human
rights education which is now being considered by the Ministry of Education and Sports for introduction in
Croatian primary schools.
In the 1999-2000 biennium, Croatia will continue to support projects on education for human rights. The
follow-up foresees research, programme development and teacher training at university level. At the same time, a
UNESCO Chair in research and training in human rights, civic, intercultural and peace education, the first
UNESCO Chair in Croatia, is to be established at the University of Zagreb.
Culture
During the last biennium, Croatia also actively participated in many activities in the field of culture.
Croatia contributed to the international expert group working on the Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague
Convention and we are pleased that the new Protocol has been signed in The Hague in March this year. Croatia,
being a country whose heritage greatly suffered during the armed conflict in former Yugoslavia, is fully aware of
the importance of this Protocol and therefore expresses its gratitude to the Kingdom of the Netherlands for
supporting this initiative and hosting the recent conference in The Hague.
Two new sites in Croatia were included in the World Heritage List in 1997 and three more sites
nominated for the procedure. Croatia is grateful for the support received from the World Heritage Centre in the
last biennium. An important aspect of the world heritage programmes remains their interdisciplinary character
and the need to promote heritage preservation and training programmes for young experts and in particular
among young people, inter alia by organizing regional and subregional exchange programmes and workshops.
The preservation not only of outstanding examples of cultural physical heritage, but also of the intangible
and oral heritage, folk and traditional arts and crafts has been one of UNESCO’s principal goals in the past. We
would like to see the role of UNESCO in the field of standard-setting instruments extend into the field of
underwater archaeology where international cooperation seems of particular interest in order to secure the sites
from pillaging.
During the World Conference on Science it became clear that future development, conditioned as it is by
scientific research, calls for a continuous reflection on ethical values as well as consideration of cultural
components. The Stockholm Conference on Cultural Policies for Development, the first World Culture Report
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