Belgium

• © UNESCO
• Ieper : Flemish belfries

Belgium participates in a number of UNESCO projects. It was responsible for the "CONGO - Nature and Culture in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)" exhibition, which was held at UNESCO House in Paris, in September 2004.

This exhibition, organized by the Royal Museum for Africa in Tervuren, Belgium, in partnership with UNESCO's World Heritage Centre and the Government of the DRC, offers a multi-themed exhibition demonstrating the links uniting humans and nature in the DRC, through natural resources, languages, symbols, and daily life. Belgium is a major contributor to the extra-budgetary funds of UNESCO.
Belgium joined UNESCO on November 29, 1946. There are currently two French-speaking UNESCO Chairs in the country. The first, set up in 1995 at the University of Mons-Hainaut, specializes in linguistics and didactics of languages in educational systems. The second, which dates from 2002, is a UNESCO Chair in academic pedagogy, at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL).

Ten Belgian sites are inscribed on the World Heritage List. The Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex is the most recent site to be inscribed on the list, in July 2005. The Plantin-Moretus Museum is a printing plant and publishing house dating from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Situated in Antwerp, it is closely associated with the history of the invention and spread of typography. Apart from its exceptional architectural value, the building houses a huge collection of old printing equipment, an extensive library, invaluable archives and works of art, including a painting by Rubens.