“The urban heritage of Ukraine is seriously endangered by the return of total war”

HAS in mid-July, Unesco listed 160 partially or totally destroyed cultural sites in Ukraine, including 70 religious buildings, 30 historic buildings, as well as museums or libraries. Its general manager, Audrey Azoulay, did not fail to stress that these repeated attacks on cultural sites had to stop.

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But for the organisation, founded in 1945 and whose mission relates in particular to the protection and enhancement of the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity, the return of total war in Europe constitutes a major challenge. Launched in violation of international legality, the war waged by Russia in Ukraine pursues ideological goals that are unlikely to be negotiated and, conversely, conducive to the commission of war crimes.

It is accompanied by the systematic negation of the cultural specificities of the Ukrainian people, which constitute their collective identity, and thus presents many similarities with the circumstances that preceded the founding of Unesco. Moreover, the sanctions regime imposed on Russia is prompting realignments unprecedented since the Cold War, weakening collective security mechanisms and multilateral fora.

Preserve profane sites

Theater of these tensions as evidenced by the threats of boycott hovering over theat 45e World Heritage Committee meeting, originally scheduled for Kazan, from June 19 to 30, which was postponed. It was supposed to take place under the Russian presidency. But Unesco does not intend to abdicate its mission.

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This is based primarily on the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property during Armed Conflicts of 1954 and the 1970 Convention on the Prohibition of Trafficking in Cultural Property. In addition to the precedent created in 2016 by the conviction of a member of the terrorist group Ansar Dine for the destruction of religious sites in Timbuktu, this framework makes it possible to document the destruction committed, to carry out emergency classifications or to prevent the sale of plundered property.

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The second foundation of Unesco’s action is technical in nature and relies on the mobilization of experts and instruments such as the satellite resources of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (Unitar) and of the United Nations satellite center (Unosat), making it possible to list the affected sites, as today in the regions of Kyiv or Kharkiv.

20th century architectural heritagee most affected century

This aspect also involves making available the expertise of major national museums, some of which, like the Louvre, already provide technical assistance to their Ukrainian counterparts. Finally, the organization has developed, in the test of various conflicts, a method of coordination between local, national and international actors to avoid the dispersion of efforts, and thus ensures to work with the Ukrainian authorities to identify the cultural goods likely to benefit of his assistance.

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source site-29