Word: unesco
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...Towering blast walls now cordon off the field of rubble and debris outside the ruined al-Askari shrine. Before the bombing, it drew anywhere from 250 to 500 pilgrims a week; today there are none. But it is being slowly and carefully rebuilt under the direction of UNESCO, with the backing of the Iraqi government and the European Commission. Mourad Zmit, the Samarra project manager for UNESCO, says it may take four years, and up to $300 million to restore the ancient structure, depending on the results of the damage assessment over the next several months. But the fact that...
...Cambodia Temple Tensions Thai and Cambodian troops are facing off over the 11th century Preah Vihear temple on the countries' shared border. The feud follows the temple's designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site in early July. Thailand says the map used in Cambodia's UNESCO application improperly places some 1.8 sq. mi. (4.7 sq km) of land near the temple in Cambodian territory. (Cambodia legally owns the temple itself.) Opposition leaders are using the issue to pressure Thailand's embattled government, which initially endorsed the application, and the Foreign Minister has resigned as a result. Cambodia, calling...
...annual meeting in Quebec City this week, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee added another 27 sites to its already burgeoning list of places of "outstanding universal value." Now wooden churches in Slovakia, Weimar-era housing projects in Berlin, and Armenian monasteries in Iran have been granted the same hallowed status as the Statue of Liberty, Stonehenge, and the Temple of Angkor Wat. And why not? There are plenty of ways to define "a human masterpiece of creative genius," one of the several criteria for inclusion. But now that World Heritage Status has been bestowed on 878 sites, some wonder whether...
Francesco Bandarin, the director of the World Heritage Center, , insists it does. The List is part of a convention adopted by UNESCO in 1972 meant "to recognize and protect the world's most significant cultural and natural sites," he says. "Over the last 36 years, the Committee and UNESCO have continued to work in line with its original mission." The benefits of getting on the list, he says, include increased visibility, more funding, and access to UNESCO's "knowledge and experience." Including private donations, the WHC has an annual budget of about $20 million; most countries are expected to implement...
...political decisions over the past five months are truly Samak's own, he's shown less than a delicate hand. Case in point is the court decision that brought down Foreign Minister Noppadon. Earlier this year, Thailand supported Cambodia's bid to gain UNESCO World Heritage status for a temple located in a disputed border zone between the two nations. Although the temple itself sits on land that an international court deemed to be Cambodia's back in 1962, Thailand claims the main access area to the temple as its own. So when Noppadon provided official Thai backing for Cambodia...