The Herat Old City wins the Award of Excellence in the 2008 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Cultural Heritage

During a ceremony held at the Radio Televison of Afghanistan (RTA) on Tuesday 25th November 2008 in Kabul, UNESCO recognized the conservation work of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in cooperation with the Ministry of Information and Culture by conferring the First Award of Excellence to their cultural heritage conservation program in Herat in the 2008 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Cultural Heritage conservation.

In the presence of H.E. Mr. Khurram, Minister of Information and Culture, officials from the embassies of Germany, Norway and USA, members of the Commission for the Old City of Herat and other Governmental and Non-Governmental officials, the UNESCO Representative and Director of the UNESCO Kabul Office, Mr. Shigeru Aoyagi, presented the Award to the Minister of Information and Culture and the project staff (Aga Khan Trust for Culture and Ministry of Information and Culture) for their conservation initiative in the Old City of Herat.

In his speech, Mr. Aoyagi expressed his hope that this award, together with UNESCO’s own initiatives in Herat funded by the Italian and Norwegian Governments, will further encourage the protection of the historic urban architecture of the Old City of Herat and other important historical sites in Afghanistan.

H.E Mr. Khuram thanked the efforts of the international community and UNESCO to conserve Afghanistan’s cultural heritage and requested the Afghan officials and the communities of Herat to increase their efforts to ensure a strict and effective protection of the historic urban fabric of the Old City of Herat in order to provide a promising basis for the Afghan authorities to develop a possible nomination for the inscription on the World Heritage List.

This year, a total of 45 entries, from 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, were submitted for consideration by a panel of international conservation experts in architecture, urban planning, heritage conservation and landscape design to conduct the selection process. The projects were of great breadth in building type, conservation scope and geographic location. The conservation project entries include hotels, offices, cultural institutions, educational institutions, religious sites, memorials, public institutions, residential buildings and urban districts.

• Source:Press Release
• 26-11-2008