UNESCO backs digital tools for heritage preservation

PanARMENIAN.Net - On December 1, at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the 16th meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict unanimously adopted a resolution authored by Armenia. The resolution is titled “Strengthening the Protection and Restoration of Cultural Heritage Through the Use of New and Emerging Technologies.”

It highlights the importance of applying modern technologies for the documentation, monitoring, preservation, and protection of cultural heritage, particularly during and after conflicts.

The resolution urges UNESCO to promote international cooperation for the broad application of such technologies in heritage protection and emphasizes the need to strengthen institutional and expert capacities.

Its goal is to enhance UNESCO’s toolkit by integrating law, cutting-edge technology, creative approaches, and global cooperation to safeguard, preserve, and restore cultural heritage.

This initiative reaffirms Armenia’s commitment to cultural heritage protection and to advancing the goals of UNESCO and the 1954 Hague Convention.

Following the 44-day war, Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh has faced widespread destruction. Entire villages, districts, and Armenian churches have been razed or repurposed, inscriptions erased, or rebranded as "Caucasian Albanian" when removal is impossible. No compensation has been provided to displaced Armenians.