International Expert Meeting on the Responsibility to Protect as applied to the Protection of Cultural Heritage

UNESCO organized an International Expert Meeting on the Responsibility to Protect as applied to the Protection of Cultural Heritage from 26 to 27 November 2015. The primary purpose of the meeting was to discuss the concept of Responsibility to Protect and its possible application to the protection of cultural heritage.

Participants included 22 distinguished specialists and practitioners representing various international governmental and non-governmental organizations in this field, including Mr Adama Dieng, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide as well as the Secretariat of the 1954, 1970 and 1972 Conventions.

The meeting was opened by Francesco Bandarin, Assistant Director-General for Culture and continued with an exchange of views on relevant aspects of the topic with a focus to operationalize this concept on a bilateral and multilateral level. Mechtild Rössler, Director of the Division for Heritage, closed the meeting, by highlighting the need for broad cooperation and complementaries among organizations.