Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis: It would be cynically disrespectful to victims in Ukraine to hold the UNESCO World Heritage Committee's session in Russia
In Paris, France, during the 214th session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis sent a letter to the Director-General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay.
Lithuania's Foreign Minister writes that with its unprovoked and illegal aggression against Ukraine, Russia revealed its disregard for the rules-based international order. Russia is also deliberately destroying Ukraine’s cultural heritage, targeting historical, religious and cultural sites, museums, schools, and monuments. Such actions violate Russia’s obligations to protect cultural property under its commitments under the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and other relevant norms of international law, including international humanitarian law.
Landsbergis calls on the Director-General to take all possible action within her mandate in order to deprive Russia of holding and chairing the 45th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Kazan, in June 2022.
The letter was also forwarded to members of the Executive Board and the World Heritage Committee.
“While the Russian war machine is still raging on in Ukraine, it would be absurdly cynical to hold a session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Russia. The civilized world must understand this and make appropriate decisions,” Lansbergis said.
Lithuania also calls on UNESCO to review its legal framework in order to assure that representatives of the UNESCO member states that violate provisions of the United Nations Charter are precluded from assuming any leadership role at UNESCO.
