In a message to Madame Irina Bokova, UNESCO director general, the Association of World Citizens highlighted its appeal for a humanitarian Cease-fire in and around Palmyra, Syria, a UNESCO Heritage of Humanity site. On May 15, there was an intensification of fighting around Palmyra between the forces of IS and the Assad regime.
A humanitarian cease-fire was an appropriate measure at that time. Now, it seems that the IS forces have taken control of the city and some of the area around it. Palmyra is a rich contribution to the cultural heritage of all the Syrian people, no matter to what political faction they may now belong.
Moreover, Palmyra is for all of humanity a moving example of trade routes such as the Silk Road and cultural exchanges through the centuries. For some 400 years, Palmyra was an important outpost of the Roman Empire, a link between the Gulf and the Mediterranean.
The protection of the cultural heritage of humanity is an important element of world law binding on states, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals.
The Association of World Citizens works in the tradition of the Roerich Peace Pact and its Banner of Peace for the protection of cultural institutions.
Early efforts for the protection of educational and cultural institutions were undertaken by Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947) a Russian and world citizen. Nicholas Roerich had lived through the First World War and the Russian Revolution and saw how armed conflicts can destroy works of art and cultural and educational institutions. For Roerich, such institutions were irreplaceable and their destruction was a permanent loss for all humanity. Thus, he worked for the protection of works of art and institutions of culture in times of armed conflict. Thus he envisaged a universally-accepted symbol that could be placed on educational institutions in the way that a red cross had become a widely-recognized symbol to protect medical institutions and medical workers.
Roerich proposed a “Banner of Peace” — three red circles representing the past, present and future — that could be placed upon institutions and sites of culture and education to protect them in times of conflict.
Roerich mobilized artists and intellectuals in the 1920s for the establishment of this Banner of Peace. Henry A. Wallace, then the US Secretary of Agriculture and later vice-president was an admirer of Roerich and helped to have an official treaty introducing the Banner of Peace — the Roerich Peace Pact — signed at the White House on April 15, 1935 by 21 states in a Pan-American Union ceremony.
At the signing, Henry Wallace on behalf of the US said, “At no time has such an ideal been more needed. It is high time for the idealists who make the reality of tomorrow, to rally around such a symbol of international cultural unity. It is time that we appeal to that appreciation of beauty, science, education which runs across all national boundaries to strengthen all that we hold dear in our particular governments and customs. Its acceptance signifies the approach of a time when those who truly love their own nation will appreciate in addition the unique contributions of other nations and also do reverence to that common spiritual enterprise which draws together in one fellowship all artists, scientists, educators and truly religious of whatever faith.”
Today, as citizens of the world, we must build upon these pioneer efforts to protect the testimonies of humanity’s constant evolution toward beauty, harmony and peace.
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TRANSCEND Media Service
