The Prince Claus Fund is launching a cultural emergency aid fund following the looting of Iraq's cultural heritage

FRENCH  SPANISH

Press Release
September 2003

Protecting cultural heritage against war and natural disasters.

On 26 September 2003 the Prince Claus Fund will launch a cultural emergency aid fund called the Cultural Emergency Response. This initiative was triggered by the news of the recent looting of cultural heritage in Baghdad (Iraq). The aim of the Cultural Emergency Response is to provide emergency aid to international cultural heritage that is damaged and threatened by war or natural disasters so as to prevent further loss. Each disaster will be assessed in terms of immediate needs; this will involve both local and international expertise and networks.

The fund’s co-founder is the International Committee of the Blue Shield, the cultural equivalent of the Red Cross. The first action of the Cultural Emergency Response will be announced during the presentation on 26 September.

Dr. Selma Al-Radi, an Iraqi archaeologist and the director of the Amiriya Restoration Project in Rada (Yemen), will hold a lecture on the lethal relationship between war and cultural heritage. She was a member of the UNESCO mission sent this summer by the United Nations to assess the state of the National Museum in Baghdad. Her lecture will be based on her personal experience of restoring museums in Beirut and Kuwait.

The Prince Claus Fund is a platform for intercultural exchange. In co-operation with individuals and organisations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Fund undertakes contemporary activities and publications in the field of culture and development. The annual Prince Claus Awards are a part of this policy. Freedom of cultural expression and respect for cultural identity are starting points for the development of new activities. They also form the ideological basis for the founding of the Cultural Emergency Response.

The Blue Shield was established in 1954 as the symbol for cultural heritage that is be protected from attack in the event of armed conflict. The International Committee of the Blue Shield was founded in 1996 with the aim of bringing together the knowledge, experience and international networks of four expert organisations, concerned with archives, libraries, museums, monuments and sites, active in the field of cultural heritage and cultural emergency aid.

Date: 26 September 2003
Location: The Prinsenhof Museum, Delft (The Netherlands)
Time: 3.30pm