UNESCO's mandate and recent activities for the rehabilitation of Afghanistan's cultural heritage

Abstract

Afghanistan's cultural heritage Afghanistan, situated at an important junction on the ancient Silk Road, has been a crossroads of cultures since time immemorial. Its unique cultural heritage reflects a history marked by the complex indigenous encounter with Achaemenid Persia, Alexandrian Greece, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. Among its many treasures are the Kanishka/Zoroastrian site of Surkh Kotal, the ninth-century Nine Domes Mosque of Haji Piyada, the twelfthcentury Minaret of Jam, and the walled city of Herat including the Friday Mosque, the Musallah complex with its minarets and the Gawhar Shad mausoleum, the Mir Ali Sher Navai Mausoleum, the Gazargah Shrine and the Shah Zadehah mausoleum; the fourth and fifth-century Buddha statues of the Bamiyan Valley were destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban regime. The present situation of Afghanistan's heritage, which has suffered irreversible damage and loss during the past two decades of war and civil unrest, can be described as a cultural disaster. For many years the United Nations, through its specialized agencies UNESCO and UNOCHA 1 , and non-governmental organizations involved in the preservation of Afghanistan's cultural heritage have constantly made every possible effort to protect it and continue to do so. UNESCO's mandate in safeguarding Afghanistan's cultural heritage In January 2002 UNESCO was officially requested by Abdullah Abdullah, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Afghan interim administration, to play a coordinating role in all international and bilateral activities aimed at safeguarding Afghanistan's cultural heritage. As a first step, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in March 2002 with the Afghan * * The author is program specialist in charge of Asia at UNESCO's Division of Cultural Heritage.