Advocacy and assessments The Director-General of UNESCO, Ms Irina Bokova, relentlessly advocated for the protection of Libyan cultural property, and for the prevention of illicit trafficking of cultural property. In August 2011 Ms Bokova alerted the Libyan authorities, as well as the civil society, the international community and the six Libyan neighbouring countries on the threats of illicit trafficking of cultural property. She also asked for increasing vigilance on attempts of import, transit and sales of such property.
The Director-General also contacted INTERPOL, the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the World Custom Organization (WCO), and specialized national police corps such as Carabinieri (Italy) to strengthen action to this end.
Priority interventions and main lines of an emergency action plan have been identified through the international experts’ meeting organized by UNESCO (Paris, 21 October 2011), through continuous consultations held with the Department of Antiquities of Libya, as well as building on the findings of experts missions (among which the Blue Shield / IMCuRWG Civil-Military Assessment Mission, September and November 2011). Most recently, UNESCO took part into the UNSMIL-interagency UN mission to the South of Libya (19-24 November 2012). UNESCO and the Department of Antiquities participated to the UN interagency missions to Zintan (13 April 2013) and to Ghadames and Derj Cities (23-24 April 2013).
A technical mission by UNESCO to the South was also conducted (4-8 May 2013), to assess the state of conservation of the UNESCO World Heritage property of the Tadrart Acacus site and to build-up a strategic plan to enforce the protection and management of this unique cultural and natural context.
Projects and way forward
Heritage documentation and management, sites’ protection and conservation of moveable property have been identified by the Department of Antiquities as main priority areas for training.
Thanks to the support of the Libyan Government, UNESCO is working side by side with the Department of Antiquities to enhance security of sites, cultural heritage collections and museums.
The project includes training in Museum collections’ and Storage Conditions, with the aim to upgrade collections’ conditions, for staff from different museums and sites from the country. It further includes the setting-up of conservation laboratories and the conservation of selected damaged and threatened monuments and historic buildings.
In parallel, thanks to the generous financial support of the Italian Government, the programme also aims at building national capacities, ranging from security forces to heritage professional, as well as raising awareness of communities for the protection and safeguarding of such diverse and rich heritage. Pilot projects are meant to target selected sites and museums, covering the various aspects of protection and enhancement (conservation, presentation, interpretation, communication strategy, etc.). It further includes ad hoc training for 150 former-combatants and youth seeking employment in the Culture sector.
The training course in conservation of moveable property (8 June-6 July 2013) carried out in Leptis Magna and Villa Silin is part of this broader capacity building programme, and marks the launch of other technical sessions at regional level (Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan).
