Afghanistan

• ©UNESCO
• Minaret of Jam

Afghanistan joined UNESCO on May 4, 1948. The UNESCO office is located in Kabul.

Afghanistan’s rich and varied cultural heritage is protected by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for the Safeguarding of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage, established in 2002. Also in 2002, the remarkably richly decorated 12th century minaret of Jam was added to the List of World Heritage in Danger. Safeguarding the Bamiyan site is another cooperative project between Afghanistan and UNESCO. The restoration of the National Museum in Kabul was supported by numerous governments and international organizations. In 2007, some 1,400 Afghan ethnographic and archaeological objects, preserved since 1999 at the Afghanistan Museum-in-Exile (Bubendorf, Switzerland) were returned to the Kabul Museum.

Several educational projects have been implemented jointly with UNESCO such as LAND AFGHAN, which promotes literacy and non-formal education. Gender parity in education and in the media, as well as the development of the University of Kabul, are current cooperation priorities.