UNESCO Director-General to Brief UN Security Council on the Protection of Cultural Heritage

On 27 April, the Director-General of UNESCO will participate in an open meeting of the UN Security Council (Arria Formula) alongside the Secretary General of INTERPOL, Jürgen Stock. Co-hosted by the Permanent Representative of Jordan to the United Nations, Dina Kawar, and the Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, François Delattre, the meeting will focus on combatting the destruction, smuggling, and theft of cultural heritage in Iraq, Syria and beyond. It will explore how cultural destruction and smuggling are used to destroy diversity and finance terrorism, and how this can be prevented in the future. The meeting comes as follow-up to the adoption of Resolution 2199, unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council in February 2015, which condemned the destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq and Syria.
The event will offer an opportunity for Security Council Members to discuss and find innovative and practical ways to protect and preserve cultural heritage. They will be briefed by UNESCO, INTERPOL and other stakeholders on their insights and efforts to address this threat.
This is also an opportunity to share insights from recent events and activities, including the Director-General’s visit to Baghdad in March 2015, and the launch of the #Unite4Heritage campaign that uses the power of social networks to create a global movement where everyone can raise their voice and take action for safeguarding heritage under threat, in Iraq and elsewhere.