The Warsaw Recommendation - Introduction to Heritage Recovery

The Warsaw Recommendation on Recovery and Reconstruction of CulturalHeritage was developed at the conference entitled "The Challenges of WorldHeritage Recovery" held in Warsaw in May 2018. The event was attended by morethan 200 participants representing all UNESCO regions. For the first time, in thecapital of Poland, representatives of UNESCO, ICOMOS, ICCROM, UNISDR, theWorld Bank, and the Global Alliance for Urban Crises, met to discuss challenges inreconstruction and recovery of cultural heritage damaged in the result of naturaldisasters or conflict.

The Warsaw Recommendation has consolidated an approach to recoveryviewed as a social process. It integrates the issues of cultural heritage preservationinto the discourse on development, and takes a stance in the debate concerningremembrance. These issues have recently gained greater importance, as the occurrence of damage to human cultural heritage has increased, both as a result of armed conflicts and natural disasters.

The ongoing War in Ukraine is the most recent example of deliberatedestruction of cultural heritage. Since February, over 500 cases of damage to historical residential buildings, churches and cultural institutions have been reported.The devastation of each of these sites and establishments definitely amounts to an irreversible loss of a vital component of Europe's cultural heritage.

Building upon the Polish experience of the post-war recovery, UNESCO WorldHeritage Centre and the National Institute of Cultural Heritage has initiated further discussion on the principles of recovery and reconstruction of cultural heritage affected by war atrocities.

As we see that the scale of destruction of Ukrainian cities such as Mariupol orKharkiv is comparable to that of Warsaw or Gdańsk found in the year 1945, we wish to offer the case study of cultural heritage recent recovery, including the post-WorldWar II recovery in Poland, as a point of departure for exchange and reflection on the future of Ukrainian cultural heritage recovery.

UNESCO World Heritage Centre, The Polish Support Center for Culture inUkraine at the National Institute of Cultural Heritage, with the assistance and co-operation of both Poland's Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and ICCROMinvites you to join an online session "The Warsaw Recommendation - Introduction toHeritage Recovery". The workshop will be held in 3 sessions focusing on casestudies, regional and institutional cooperation, as well as challenges andopportunities in digitzation, documentation or holistic approach to heritage recovery.The event will be attended by experts from UNESCO, ICCROM, Marche PolytechnicUniversity and the National Institute of Cultural Heritage. Our primary goal is to createa space for discussion, exchange of expertise with Ukrainian experts, as well as atfamiliarising the participants with the principles of the Warsaw Recommendation.

Organizers: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, The Polish Support Center for Culture in Ukraine atthe National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Poland's Ministry of Culture and NationalHeritage in co-operation with ICCROM.

The webinar will be conducted in English.We look forward to your active participation in this important event and in the discussion, held in the form of a chat discussion.

Participation in the webinar is free of charge but requires registration. The link to the meeting will be sent by e-mail upon registration.