Nara Message“Saving Syrian Cultural Heritage for the Next Generation – Palmyra”
Nara, Japan
13 July 2017
More than six years of crisis in Syria have devastated the lives and livelihoods of many Syrians,
and the destruction of cultural heritage in Syria, including Palmyra, is a grave concern to all
humanity. As experts in Syrian cultural heritage from Japan, Germany, France, Poland, Italy,Norway, Austria, and from Syria, participating in the International Conference on Saving
Syrian Cultural Heritage for the Next Generation – Palmyra held in Nara, Japan, wecondemn in the strongest terms the destruction of Syrian cultural heritage and call on allconcerned parties to do their utmost to safeguard this endangered heritage.
We recall the wide array of United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) legal instruments that are of vital importance in the protection of cultural heritage.
These include the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property on the Event of
Armed Conflict (1954) and its two Protocols, as well as the 1970 UNESCO Convention on theMeans of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership ofCultural Property and the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural andNatural Heritage (1972). We also express our support for United Nations Security Council
resolution 2199 (2015) condemning the destruction of cultural heritage and adopting legallybinding measures to counter illicit trafficking of antiquities and cultural objects from Iraq andSyria and resolution 2347 (2017), which is the first ever resolution adopted by the Security
Council to focus on cultural heritage and its protection for peace and security.
Nara is home to several of the world’s most important cultural heritage sites. Nara’s culturalheritage has also faced danger of destruction time and again throughout its history. Towards theend of the nineteenth century, the anti-Buddhist movement destroyed and damaged Buddhist
temples across the country, including in Nara. However, the people of Nara overcame thesechallenges with their determination to preserve their heritage and their attachment to theircultural heritage.
Across the world, cultural heritage is devastated by intentional damage and destruction, denying
the passing-on of cultural heritage to future generations and undermining social cohesion. This
makes it all the more important, especially at times of crisis, to strengthen the awareness andcapacities of local communities to appreciate and preserve cultural heritage.
As we gather in Nara, we acknowledge the great personal sacrifice that our Syrian colleagues
have made to preserve Syrian cultural heritage during the crisis. We affirm our commitment tosupport the Syrian people in the tasks of restoration and conservation of their heritage withtraining, tools and new technologies; to support them during the documentation of the conflictrelated damages and the conservation of the fragments of the demolished buildings, and to help
them in their restoration effort.
We hereby express our support for all the international efforts including those of UNESCO, theUnited Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Archaeological Institute ofKashihara, with the support of other technical and academic institutions, for the capacity
development of Syrian cultural heritage experts.
Standing side by side with the Syrian people, we reaffirm our solidarity and commitment topreserve Syrian cultural heritage. We strongly urge the international community to join ourefforts to assist the Syrian people and pave the way for peace and recovery in the future.