President Zourabichvili meets with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay
By Liza Mchedlidze
Friday, November 11, 2022
The President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili met UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
Among the discussed issues were the state of cultural heritage in the occupied territories of Georgia and the issues of biodiversity of Georgia.
President Zourabichvili noted at the meeting that in addition to human rights violations in the occupied territories of Georgia, cultural heritage is deliberately damaged and in many cases destroyed, and there is no international mechanism, including UNESCO, which will monitor their condition in the occupied territories and describe the loss and violations.
At the meeting, the President raised the issue of UNESCO monitoring the monuments in the occupied territories through some mechanisms.
As the Director General of UNESCO noted there are similar problems in other areas of the region, and UNESCO is trying to develop new mechanisms within the framework of the Hague Convention, which will allow the recording and monitoring of the state of cultural heritage sites in conflict zones by means of satellites and other modern technologies.
During the meeting, President Salome Zourabichvili and Director General Audrey Azoulay agreed that Georgia will continue to cooperate with UNESCO in the direction of improving the methodology of protection and preservation of biological heritage and biodiversity.
