Yale University, New Haven, 11 April, 2016

Transcription

1 Address by Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO on the occasion of the Global Colloqium of University Presidents Preservation of Cultural Heritage : Challenges and Strategies hosted by Yale University Culture in Crisis: Diversity, Sustainability and Teaching Yale University, New Haven, 11 April, 2016 Thank you very much, Stefan, and each and every one of you, for attending this lecture about the preservation of cultural heritage, and the conflicts and challenges it faces. I am very honored to be here, after this long day of discussion, and on the eve of a very important meeting tomorrow - an occasion for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Ban Ki-moon, to make an important speech. And of course, my gratitude first and foremost goes to Doctor Simon Stefan for this very kind invitation. Last year, I unfortunately could not attend the meeting in London, which makes this opportunity even more important to speak about heritage and conflict, and about the deep meaning that heritage and culture have for all of us. I had the pleasure of visiting the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, which is one of the world s innovators in the field of heritage preservation and especially in terms of green and preventive conservation, and sustainable preservation strategies. I am very impressed by the laboratories. I think your Institute stands at the cutting edge of teaching and research. DG/2016/073- Original: English

2 And I would also add that the work of the Institute resonates with the motto of this great University, Yale University, which is lux et veritas. This resonates deeply with UNESCO s mandate, echoing the values guiding all of our action, to protect the heritage of humanity as a source of belonging and meaning; as a source of beauty and creativity for all to share. This heritage is, indeed, a wellspring of light and truth, essential to how we see the world, and how we understand ourselves and our place in it. And today, I believe this has never been so important, because these precise values are under attack. Conflicts are changing shape today, and we are seeing the rise of violent extremism, with culture and identities on the frontline of new wars. We see the systematic violations of human rights, the persecution of people on cultural and religious grounds. We see terrorist attacks. We see the intentional destruction of the past, with cultural landmarks bulldozed in Palmyra, in Mosul, in Bosra, in Aleppo We see archaeological sites looted on industrial scale, in Douras Europos, in Apamea; fuelling illicit trafficking, and financing terrorism. Fundamentally, I would say, we are seeing a new global struggle for the hearts and minds, especially young hearts and minds. This features coordinated attacks against the symbols and institutions of creativity and of free thinking schools are destroyed, universities are bombed, journalists are beheaded All of this to impose a sectarian vision of faith, of culture and of existence. These attacks on people -- on heritage and on minds -- are part of the same deliberate strategy which I consider cultural cleansing. DG/2016/073 - Page 2

3 This calls for new approaches to diplomacy. This calls for new strategies to build peace, to put culture on the frontline of all peacebuilding. We need to be clear about the new challenges we face and how to fight back, because I am convinced we can. This means, first, putting words on the nature of the threat we face. Such systematic attacks against cultural heritage and diversity, used as a tactic of war, I believe, are unprecedented in recent history. The deliberate destruction of cultural heritage is a war crime, and should be prosecuted and punished as such. In Syria, all six World Heritage sites have been damaged by fighting percent of the Old City of Aleppo has been destroyed. The ancient city of Palmyra, the UNESCO World Heritage site, endured systematic destruction during nearly a year of occupation, and we will be sending soon an assessment mission, preliminary, and then further on, once the security allows, we will be able to close on what the real situation is and to evaluate the damage of this World Heritage Site. We know that Palmyra belongs to all Syrians, but I would say it belongs to the whole humanity. And this is why it matters that we bring the international community together, around shared values, regardless of our differences of opinions or beliefs. In Libya, at least eight religious sites have been damaged or destroyed. In Yemen, the fabled Marib Dam and the Old Cities of Sana a and Sada a have been severely damaged by bombing. It has not been easy for us -- for UNESCO to shine light on this destruction --while children, women and men are being killed, or are suffering. DG/2016/073- Page 3

4 But let me be clear. The destruction of culture shows that violent extremists do not seek only to kill or seize control of a territory their objective is the complete annihilation of the Other. I believe this is the mark of a genocidal project -- and recent attacks around the world - in Belgium, in Pakistan, in Istanbul, in Burkina Faso, in Bamako or elsewhere - show that such violence knows no borders. Extremists do not choose between culture and people they attack both and we need to defend both. In January, we confirmed the destruction of the Monastery of Deir Mar Elia in Mosul, the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq. Following this destruction, Father Paul Thabit Habib from Erbil said: We see this as an attempt to expel us from Iraq. We know that Iraq s Christian population has dropped from 1.3 million in 2000 to 300,000 today. But the attacks of extremists persecute not only Christians, they persecute with the same means Muslims, Yezidis, Shabaks, Turkmens. This should remind to all of us that the destruction of heritage is inseparable from the persecution of people. This is why we consider that the protection of cultural heritage today, when we can see a rise of violent extremism, is much more than simply a cultural issue. It is a humanitarian imperative, and I would say a security issue. It is also a development and recovery issue over the long term, as I deeply believe that culture is a force for resilience, giving people strength and confidence to look into the future. DG/2016/073 - Page 4

5 I personally saw this in Mali, in Timbuktu. When I first visited Timbuktu, with French President François Hollande, it was just ten days after the extremism has been pushed away from Timbuktu, and I saw the suffering of the local communities when they saw their mausoleums -- which have been there for more than eleven centuries --destroyed. And I promised we would rebuild them. So we did rebuild them. I went last July to Timbuktu again to launch the restitution of the 14 mausoleums, and I saw the joy in the local communities and local people. On a personal note, you know, my position of Director-General of UNESCO always encourages governments and institutions to give me awards. I understand this is part of the job, the job description. But after I received the honorary citizenship of Timbuktu, when I went there last July, I think this was -- and still is -- one of the most cherished for me. It is one of the dearest distinctions that I have received from the local people, because it was really the local communities that wanted to give me this distinction, and I think this is so wonderful -- to see how heritage can really lift up a population, people, communities, and mobilize them, unite them, about the idea that extremism is to be fought; that there is a future; that they have to look with optimism towards the future, and that the history respects all these values. I think this is really a magnificent project, one of the most beautiful projects that UNESCO has done in recent years. So I would like to come, once again, to this link, between the humanitarian, the culture and the security, because I do believe that nowadays we have to put the dots together among the three. DG/2016/073- Page 5

6 We are exploring all the possible ways to strengthen the linkages between peacebuilding operations on behalf of the United Nations, humanitarian emergency responses, and all the other actions that we undertake for the protection of heritage. This is the spirit of the agreement I signed two weeks ago with the International Committee for the Red Cross and Red Crescent, to integrate culture deeply into humanitarian operations. This is also the spirit of the UNESCO agreement with Italy, to establish a Task Force on United4heritage, bringing together military and culture experts to get ready to intervene in crisis and also to fight against illicit trafficking of objects of art. I think this is where we have to put together on a large platform all the relevant partners and actors. The landmark Resolution 2199 by the United Nations Security Council on the financing of terrorism, which bans trade in cultural goods from Syria, gives us the opportunity -- gives particular responsibilities to us, to UNESCO, to Interpol -- to lead this global effort to fight illicit trafficking of objects of art. And we have created this large platform of working together with main partners, like ICOMOS, ICCROM, World Customs Organization, the United Nations Office against Drugs and Crime to mobilize around us a very concrete action of Member States, of Governments, in order to strengthen the legislation, to introduce new laws, to harmonize within the European context, to strengthen institutions to do some capacity building, and to use all legal provisions and norms that we have in order to stop illicit trafficking. I believe we must do more still. We must boost more coordination among Member States, among law enforcement agencies, museums, auction houses, the private market. I think all this is essential to deepen information-sharing, to deepen research and at the end of the day, to pass a very strong message: that it is immoral, it is unethical, it is simply not right to trade with such looted objects. DG/2016/073 - Page 6

7 And I also believe that Universities and Institutes, like this one, have a major role to play. We have launched with UNODC a new training programme for judges and prosecutors, to connect the fight against illicit trafficking with money laundering, with corruption. We are working with customs authorities, and also we are reaching out to main partners, like the European Union, so that they could harmonize and strengthen their import controls. This was the message that I passed last week when I met the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, and the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, because we need to put all the dots together, like in the example of the recently adopted Act by the US Congress on the strengthening of the border controls and imports of cultural goods. We have seen a lot of progress. I would not say we are there, but there is a strong momentum in this effort. Antiquities from Syria and Iraq have been seized in Finland, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, France, the United States, as well as the United Kingdom. Last year, the United States returned 700 objects recovered during a US Delta Force raid on the Syrian compound of Abu Sayyaf, a senior financial officer of ISIS. This is the proof of the connection that exists between illicit trafficking and the financing of terrorism. Today, in Iraq and Syria, ordinary citizens and museum professionals are risking their lives to protect their culture. At the end of today s discussion, a lady put forward the question of how we should honour the monument men and women, who risk their lives to protect the heritage. DG/2016/073- Page 7

8 I think there is so much need to value their work, to give them support, to find ways to show that what they are doing is no less important than fighting on the forefront in a military mission, or in a peace-building and peacekeeping mission. And that is why we need to foster more capacity building, we need to train the minimum emergency risk management, and pass a very strong message among the military that they should protect heritage. With the support of archaeologists and experts from France and Switzerland, UNESCO shipped to Damascus some 7 tons of equipment, safety boxes and materials, that Syrian experts desperately need to protect cultural objects from museums. UNESCO trains armed forces and we share precise coordination in the protection of Heritage Sites, to prevent them from being targeted under the provisions of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property during Armed Conflict. And I remember how something that was very simple had a big impact. We published a small passport of heritage, for all the peacekeepers -- for French troops and other peacekeepers in Mali -- we gave a very precise map of the heritage that was there, and every single soldier or official had it in his pocket. And now, we know that more and more troops that are trained for peacekeeping, are passing specific training for protection of heritage. This is the case with French military. We are trying to introduce in some of the peacekeeping UN compounds, a particular course of cultural heritage, because we do believe when peacekeeping missions are needed, we can integrate the protection of heritage into the mandate of peacekeepers as approved by the Security Council for the first time in Mali. I think this was a breakthrough, and an extremely important effort, that we made with support of the Security Council. DG/2016/073 - Page 8

9 But the question of impunity is also very important. If we say it is a war crime -- and it is a war crime, according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court -- it has to be punished by all the forces of justice. This is where we started working after the destruction of the mausoleums in Mali, with Ms Fatou Bensouda, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and the authorities of Mali and Niger. This has already given a result: the first suspect of such war crimes in Timbuktu, Mali, has been transferred to the International Criminal Court. This case has been accepted by the International Criminal Court, and I think it is a strong message to the impunity of such crimes. We do work with the International Criminal Court, with the Chief Prosecutor, in Syria, in Iraq. Unfortunately, the two countries have not ratified the Rome Statute. We have been encouraging, insisting But as long as we know that there are more than foreign fighters in Syria, in Iraq, we suspect that some of these crimes have been committed by citizens of countries that have ratified the Rome Statute. We also know that the Chief Prosecutor Madame Bensouda, working with the legal teams of UNESCO, is very strong into her wish to make everything possible. And I hope we will have some results, because I do believe that impunity should be stopped. Another side I would like to touch upon here, is in response to these conflicts as we see nowadays -- protection of heritage and culture is of course important, but we cannot do that only by the strength of military power. DG/2016/073- Page 9

10 We need to talk to young people; we need to introduce history protection of heritage values into education; we need to win this battle of ideas; we need this soft power of creativity -- of education -- in order to make young people unite around heritage. This is the campaign I launched at the University of Bagdad, and I really would like to thank you for joining us in this very important social media campaign. We started very modestly, and now it is a campaign followed by more than 15 million people, most of them young people. We think this is the way to pass a strong message to young people about culture, heritage, diversity and also about the need of living together. Because at the end of the day, when we speak about heritage and protecting heritage, when we speak about the World Heritage Convention and about the thousand sites inscribed on the UNESCO list, we tend to forget that behind all this lies an extraordinary idea -- that we all unite around the outstanding universal value of certain sites. Probably this is the best example of dialogue among cultures. This is about respecting. This is about knowledge. This is about, once again, tolerance. And now with the destruction of this heritage, we realize that protecting the heritage and world heritage -- an overall idea that did not exist some forty-five years ago -- is an extraordinary way of us to know each other, to live together, and to have the feeling that we are one single community. Because we all suffer, all in pain, when mausoleums in Timbuktu have been destroyed, although such sites may belong to another religion, to another period, to another culture. DG/2016/073 - Page 10

11 I remember when I went to Tunisia, just after the revolution, we did a conference on freedom of expression to celebrate the World Press Freedom Day, so that freedom of expression would be strongly embedded in the constitution as a democratic value. I visited one school, after a visit to the Bardo Museum, that was attacked several months ago by extremists. This is a museum with extraordinary roman mosaics maybe some of the most beautiful in the world and I am sure some of you have seen them. I was talking to these young boys and girls, in sixth or seventh grade, and I said you have to be proud of what you have here, you have an extraordinary museum, you have an extraordinary heritage, you have Roman heritage, you have Phoenician, you have Islamic, etc. One girl just raised her hand and said, why should I be proud of heritage that does not belong to me, it does not belong to my culture, it does not belong to my religion, why should I care about preserving this heritage? And it was the moment when I thought that we really need to talk with these young people. Of course, my answer was quite natural. I said, you know, every culture permeates with each other. People live in this place, and maybe some of your grand-grandgrand-father did this mosaic. There is no pure culture. There are always influences, different layers, but we stand as a single humanity. Now, in the 21 st century, we have to respect, to know, and to preserve the heritage of our culture, the heritage of our predecessors and of everyone s, because this is how humanity evolved during the ages. This visit gave me once again a very strong conviction that we need to continue working with young people, we have to continue passing this message about diversity, about the meaning of culture as learning to live together. And I think that is the strong message of cultural heritage DG/2016/073- Page 11

12 The Convention on Cultural Heritage is precisely that we are different, but we are one humanity, and that behind any culture, there will be -- and there can be -- outstanding universal values around which we unite. It was not by chance that I launched the #United4Heritage campaign at the University of Bagdad. It was just a few months after the Mosul museum was looted, and extremists were advancing. We thought we have to give hope to the young Iraqis, to reconcile, to reunite around some ideas. We wanted to do this through heritage in a country with extraordinary history, a cradle of human civilisation, because I could testify there was a thirst in the eyes of these young Iraqi students, to be part of our joint humanity and our effort. Nowadays, we really need to bring this very strong spirit together, because I do believe that violent extremists know that culture brings people together. They know what identity is. That is why they attack heritage, they attack culture, because when they attack them, they attack the identities of people. During the many debates and conferences that I have recently participated in, I was sitting next to the minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan. With Jordan, we work in an extraordinary manner to fight extremism and to work with young people. The Foreign Minister of Jordan told me: You know, my young son, watching this destruction, watching this discussion, told me: You know, Dad, I think these extremists destroy heritage because heritage delegitimizes them; because they are afraid of history. And I think this is so true --they are afraid of history, because history really delegitimizes them. And that is why we have to preserve it. DG/2016/073 - Page 12

13 We, international organisations, United Nations Agencies, have the responsibility to work for the protection of heritage and culture. We are the keepers of the World Heritage Convention, the 1954 Convention on the Protection of Heritage in Conflict, the 1970 Convention against Illicit Trafficking of Objects of Art. ICOMOS, ICCROM, universities, and many more We all have a joint responsibility, because I believe that what we do is precisely the antidote to radicalisation; the antidote to extremism. But we really need to mobilize young people around the idea that heritage and culture matter, that we have to respect human rights and cultural diversity. Being here, in the United States, I cannot help but mention that the World Heritage Convention is very much an American idea, and I often cite the late Russell E. Train -- founding father of the World Wildlife Fund -- who also inspired the World Heritage Convention. He said: As the fabric of human society seems under attack by forces that deny the existence of a shared heritage, World Heritage holds out a contrary and positive vision of our human future, a new sense of kinship with one another, as part of a single, global community. This vision has never been so relevant, and this is the positive vision of our human future that we need to promote today. Thank you. DG/2016/073- Page 13