The event is co-organized by Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Culture, the UNESCO World Heritage Center, the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), the Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve and the State Service of Cultural Heritage Conservation, Development and Rehabilitation under the Ministry of Culture.
In his opening remarks, Minister of Culture Abulfas Garayev described the fact that the authoritative international organizations host their events in Azerbaijan as manifestation of the country’s influence. He emphasized President Ilham Aliyev’s and First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva’s irreplaceable contributions to the development and strengthening of the Azerbaijan-UNESCO relations.
The Forum agenda includes the aims and objectives of the Site Managers Forum within the scope of World Heritage and Capacity Building, keynote presentation on cultural landscapes and integrated conservation and other topics.
As part of the Forum, the participants will also familiarize themselves with Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve and Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape.
The 1st and 2nd editions of the Site Managers’ Forum took place in Poland (Krakow, 2017) and Bahrain (Manama, 2018).
About 70 people representing more than 50 countries will be participating in the event.
The major objectives of the 2019 edition of World Heritage Site Managers’ Forum are to promote international cooperation of World Heritage Site Managers and co-ordinate worldwide actions in favor of the protection and conservation of humankind’s historical heritage through activities and interventions aimed at raising the awareness of States Parties to this heritage, to form an international network that defines, improves and promotes conservation principles, standards, research, responsible practice, innovation about the protection of worldwide heritage and to assist Site Managers through appropriate guidance, to harness the potential of World Heritage properties and heritage in general, to contribute to sustainable development and increase the effectiveness and relevance of the World Heritage Convention whilst respecting its primary purpose and mandate of protecting the Outstanding Universal value of World Heritage properties.
