The International Secretariat’s letter – July 2022

Dear Presidents,

It is a pleasure for me to write to you again, as I do every year in July, to keep you informed of the recent activities of the International Secretariat, and to thank you for your loyal support, which makes them possible.

To begin with, here is a non-exhaustive overview of the subjects that have mobilised us over the last few months in our work in support of the (National or Scientific) Committees and Working Groups:

-Coordination of ICOMOS’ participation in the 11th session of the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum in Katowice in June;

-Publication of a joint statement by ICOMOS, ICOM, E.C.C.O, ICOMOS-Corpus Vitrearum and ICOM-Glass urging the European Commission not to ban the use of lead in the manufacture, conservation and restoration of stained glass and other cultural heritage;

-Publication, in conjunction with ICOMOS Japan and ICOMOS Lebanon respectively, of two Heritage Alerts, one concerning the Takanawa Chikutei maritime railway embankment and the other concerning the grain silos in the port of Beirut;

-Coordination of ICOMOS’ participation in the second United Nations Ocean Conference held in Lisbon last June. An ICOMOS statement was issued on this occasion, at the initiative of our Scientific Committee on Underwater Cultural Heritage, with the support of our Scientific Committee on Water and Heritage and our Working Group on Sustainable Development;

-Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the ongoing work to revive the Scientific Committee on Wall Paintings, which is being carried out under the supervision of the Advisory Committee. A call for interest has just been launched, so please pass it on to your members and colleagues.

Another important axis of our work, as you know, is the development of our presence and our network on the African continent. In this respect, we have been particularly active at the beginning of 2022:

-Firstly, with the creation – in progress – of two new National Committees, one in Zambia and the other in Ethiopia, following the approval of their statutes by the Board in June. The creation of three other African Committees, in Chad, Cameroon and Burkina Faso is also well underway.

-Secondly, with the organisation of a capacity building workshop in the Democratic Republic of Congo for 29 professionals in the field of cultural heritage inventories. This workshop was held in March with the financial support of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH).

-I would also like to draw your attention to the CVI Africa project, the results of which are now available. This project, in which ICOMOS was closely involved, notably through Will Megarry, the Focal point of our Working Group on Climate Action, focused on capacity building for and climate vulnerability assessment of UNESCO World Heritage properties in Africa;

-To conclude this news on activities in Africa, I would like to briefly mention the meeting very kindly organised by the Ambassador of South Africa to UNESCO to allow our President Teresa Patricio and myself to better explain to his fellow ambassadors from other African member countries of UNESCO, the functioning and role of ICOMOS. We were able to well prepare for this presentation thanks to an internal online meeting – with all the African members of ICOMOS who made themselves available – which proved to be very instructive and useful. I would like to thank our African colleagues again for their support.

Of course, I cannot end this letter without mentioning the work of our team in favour of Ukraine and our Ukrainian Committee. My colleagues – and here I would like to give special thanks to Gaia Jungeblodt and Jessica Khan – have indeed worked with inexhaustible energy to:

-Source and deliver more than 400 fire extinguishers for the protection of historic wooden churches (tserkvas) in Ukraine. This was done in partnership with the Foundation to preserve Ukraine’s Sacral Arts and the World Monuments Fund.

-Participate in the organisation of the mission to Ukraine of Dr Patricio and Vice President Zeynep Gül Ünal. This joint ICOMOS-ICCROM mission, organised at the invitation of the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy to meet with members of the Ministry and local heritage actors and to visit cultural heritage sites damaged or threatened by the conflict, took place from 9 to 16 July.

Finally, I have the pleasure to inform you that last May we recruited Bertrand Bellet (documentation@icomos.org), our new Documentation and records manager, whose main mission over the next 18 months will be to help us put in place a strategy to increase the digital visibility and accessibility of our scientific publications.

I look forward to hopefully meeting many of you in Bangkok soon,

And assure you, as always, of the commitment of the International Secretariat, and of its pleasure to work with and for you,

Yours sincerely

Marie-Laure Lavenir,
Director General