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UNESCO chief calls on young people to join in cultural heritage protection efforts

Xinhua, April 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

The UNESCO chief has recently called on more young people to join in cultural heritage protection activities and fight the destruction of world heritage and the smuggling of cultural artifacts.

Irina Bokova, UNESCO director-general, made the remarks on her recent visit to the Paris Institute of Political Studies (SciencesPo) and in her discussions with the universities' students, faculty members, and cultural heritage protection experts on the protection of cultural heritage in Iraq and Syria.

Bokova introduced UNESCO's #Unite4Heritage project which was inaugurated during her visit to the University of Baghdad in Iraq. The project aims to unite forces through the social media network Twitter to protect cultural heritage threatened by war and fight against the smuggling of cultural artifacts, she said.

Bokova declared the recent "cultural looting" events in Iraq shocking and intolerable. The cruel destruction of world heritage through the use of violence by extremist groups, and the spreading of video footage of such behaviour on the Internet were alarming, she said, and urged the world to start considering taking serious action against such crimes.

Bokova stated that cultural heritage plays a crucial role in maintaining social stability in that it brings energy and diversity to society from different ethnic groups. Endit