At a meeting with the partners of the CIUDAD ‘WAR FREE WORLD HERITAGE LISTED CITIES’ project held on the 8th December in Beirut, Mr. Ghassan Moukheiber (Member of the Lebanese Parliament) expressed his support to the project and promised to raise at a political level the issue of the ratification of the 1999 Second Protocol of the (1954) Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflicts.
The project aims to obtain the status of enhanced protection of Byblos’ cultural heritage in line with the principles stipulated in the Convention and the ratification of the Second Protocol is a compulsory prerequisite to be satisfied to secure Lebanon heritage eligibility to the status of enhanced protection.
According to Mr. Moukheiber, Lebanon (that had wars both international and internal) needs to have a right to protect its valuable cultural heritage. “It is a right of future generations that needs to be protected”, underlined the Deputy.
At the meeting, partners of the project were present as well as Mr. Georges Zouain a consultant in the Euromed Heritage IV programme who participated to the Thematic Workgroup organised by the CIUDAD Supporting Mechanism 5-6 December in Byblos