To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, policy makers and cultural heritage specialists gathered for an international conference “Cultural Heritage and Security”. Experts underlined the importance of cultural heritage protection in maintaining peace and security and promoting sustainable development and pointed out our joint responsibility for this mission.
“Culture provides us with unlimited resources to react to development challenges and to adapt to them, to ensure resilience and recovery from extraordinary situations, to solve conflicts and to build peace, as well as to promote social coherence and sustainable future,” reminds Krista Pikkat, the Secretary of the 1954 Hague Convention and its two Protocols (1954 and 1999). “By ensuring protection and maintenance of cultural heritage during armed conflicts, the Convention and its Protocols helps us to prevent deepening of hostilities and eases peace mediation during conflicts un settlement after conflicts, thus paving way to lasting and sustainable peace.”
The 1954 Hague Convention is the first international legal document fully dealing with the protection of tangible and intangible heritage. The Convention and its two Protocols lays down the principles and prescribes the action for the protection of heritage in the event of armed conflict.
Cdr Marc-André Vary, JAG Officer International and Operational Law, Task Force Latvia, Canadian Armed Forces, stresses: “Culture is often described as the heart of a nation, and Latvia’s heart is beating with great energy. I am privileged to call Latvia my home for the next few months and to work shoulder by shoulder with Latvian militaries while serving here as part of Canada and NATO’s defence obligations towards Latvia. You have welcomed us, Canadians, with warm and open heart. This touching attitude shows us how important our defence obligations are. Our commitment also means protecting culture and heritage in line with international law to make sure that Latvia can keep sharing its cultural values, traditions, and identity throughout generations. Each one of us have our role and responsibility in protecting culture values. And both our words and deeds matter.”
The aim of the Conference was to raise and strengthen the awareness of the value of cultural heritage for society, and to promote cooperation between the culture and defence sectors in saving and preserving cultural values in times of crisis.
Policy planners and culture and cultural heritage experts from UNESCO, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Estonia, France, Latvia, the Netherlands, and Ukraine discussed topics related to the importance of heritage protection in maintaining peace, monitoring of heritage objects, protection of heritage, and local communities. The Conference concluded with a discussion on Latvia’s situation with the cultural heritage and its protection.
The Conference was organised by UNESCO Latvian National Commission, the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Defence in cooperation with ICOMOS Latvia, French Institute in Latvia, Embassy of Canada to Latvia, and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Latvia. The Conference took place at the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia.
This Conference was one of the events held in Latvia during the UNESCO Week 2024 “Culture is Safety”.
Video recordings of the Conference are available HERE.