ALECSO holds special session of the Conference on Archeology and Cultural Heritage in the Arab World

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ALECSO holds special session of the Conference on Archeology and Cultural Heritage in the Arab World

H.E. Dr. Mohamed Ould Amar, Director-General of ALECSO, opened the special session of the “Conference on Archeology and Cultural Heritage in the Arab World”, held remotely on September 9, 2020, with a statement in which he emphasized the importance of preserving cultural heritage and the need to valorize heritage and make best use of it in the service of development. He called, in this regard, for developing joint visions and practical plans to protect and save endangered cultural heritage.

The Conference was attended by heritage officials from 19 Arab States, along with representatives from relevant international and regional organizations and institutions, including UNESCO, the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage (ARC-WH – Bahrain) and the Regional Office for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage in Arab States (ICCROM – Sharjah). It was also attended by H.E. Eng. Ahmed Al-Subaih, Secretary-General of the Arab Towns Organization, along with a number of international experts.

The Conference was moderated by Dr. Fawzi Mahfoudh, Director-General of the National Heritage Institute in Tunisia and Chairman of the 24th session of the Conference, with the assistance of Dr. Hayat Guermazi, Director of ALECSO’s Culture Department.

Presentations focused on the damage caused to historical sites and monuments as a result of floods and other recent disasters such as the Beirut port explosion which caused severe devastation to over 600 historical buildings, in addition to a large number of educational, cultural and other institutions. Natural disasters resulting from climate change have also affected many archaeological sites and ancient cities, some of which are inscribed on the World Heritage List.

The conference produced a set of recommendations, including in particular :

  • Call on relevant international and regional organizations and institutions to increase coordination in order to assess the damage and identify priorities for intervention;
  • Set up a small coordination team and avoid duplication;
  • Act promptly to establish a technical committee, involving heritage officials from the affected Arab States and representatives of relevant organizations, to develop an emergency operational plan to salvage devastated monuments and sites;
  • Develop a crisis and disaster anticipation and preparedness plan;
  • Pursue implementation of Arab training and capacity-building programs, and form specialized rescue teams and prepare them for rapid intervention.