In the first five months of this year, international tourism has seen a strong return, with almost 250 million international arrivals recorded, according to the recent UNWTO World Tourism Barometer.

The same source reveals that for a period from January to May 2021, over 77 million arrivals were recorded, which means that the sector has recovered almost half or 46 per cent of the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

In this regard, the Secretary General of UNWTO, Zurab Pololikashvili, has said that tourism recovery has increased the pace in many parts of the world, facing the challenges that stand in its way.

In addition, he advised being careful about the economic problems and geopolitical challenges that may affect this sector in the remaining part of 2022 and beyond.

“Europe welcomed more than four times as many international arrivals as in the first five months of 2021 (+350 per cent), boosted by strong intra-regional demand and the removal of all travel restrictions in many countries,” the statement issued by the UNWTO reads.

Europe also saw a particularly strong performance in April at +458 per cent, thus reflecting a busy Easter period. Meanwhile, in America, arrivals doubled by +112 per cent. However, the strong rebound is measured against weak results in 2021, while arrivals remain 36 per cent and 40 per cent below 2019 levels in the two regions, respectively.

Other regions that saw strong growth are also the Middle East, with +157 per cent, and Africa, with +156 percent remaining 54 per cent and 50 per cent below 2019 levels, respectively. Asia and the Pacific almost doubled arrivals with +94 per cent. However, the numbers were 90 per cent below 2019, as some borders remained closed to non-essential travel.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—The Jerusalem Post reports that traces of a fourth-century A.D. rock quarry were uncovered at the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian site built on top of the Roman emperor Hadrian’s temple of Capitoline Jupiter. Francesca Romana Stasolla, Beatrice Brancazi, and Stefano De Togni of the Sapienza University of Rome and their colleagues found the remains of the quarry while they were systematically restoring pavement stones in the ancient structure. Stasolla said that the quarry is marked by deep, uneven cuts, so that the builders in A.D. 326, during the reign of the emperor Constantine (r. A.D. 306–337), had to level the surface with soil mixed with ceramic materials to allow for water drainage. The quarried stones were then used to construct the early church

CHIAPAS, MEXICO—According to a statement released by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), preparations for the construction of visitor resources have uncovered a stone workshop and a cemetery at Palenque, a Maya city in southern Mexico. Tools for hunting, food preparation, and ritual sacrifices were constructed in the workshop between A.D. 600 and 850. More than 2,000 artifacts were recovered from the workshop, said Diego Prieto Hernández, director general of INAH. In the cemetery, researchers uncovered the remains of a woman who died around A.D. 800. Her remains show cranial deformation and inlays of precious stones in her teeth. The burial could offer insights into the role of women in ancient Maya society, Hernández explained.

WALLONIA, BELGIUM—The Brussels Times reports that a human skeleton, amputated limbs, the remains of at least three horses, and ammunition boxes have been found in a ditch at the site of an allied field hospital during the Battle of Waterloo, which was fought on June 18, 1815 by a French army commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, an army made up of soldiers from Britain and its allies, and a Prussian army. Additional amputated limbs were uncovered nearby during excavations conducted in 2018. “Dead soldiers, horses, amputated limbs, and more would have been quickly buried in a desperate attempt to contain the spread of disease around the hospital,” said archaeologist Véronique Moulaert of the Walloon Heritage Agency. Only one other complete skeleton has been found near the battlefield. Most of the human remains from the bloody battle are thought to have been exhumed and ground into agricultural fertilizer in the nineteenth century. Behind what had been Napoleon’s front line, a metal detector survey has revealed more than 20 musket balls thought to have been left behind by fighting between French and Prussian troops. 

A world of 8 billion: Towards a resilient future for all – Harnessing opportunities and ensuring rights and choices for all

In 2011, the world reached a population of 7 billion. This year, the number will hit 8 billion, prompting the attendant responses. Some will marvel at the advancements in health that have extended lifespans, reduced maternal mortality and child mortality and given rise to vaccine development in record time. Others will tout technological innovations that have eased our lives and connected us more than ever. Still others will herald gains in gender equality.

But progress is not universal, throwing inequality into razor-sharp relief. The same concerns and challenges raised 11 years ago remain or have worsened: Climate change, violence, discrimination. The world reached a particularly grim milestone in May: More than 100 million forcibly displaced worldwide.

In an ideal world, 8 billion people means 8 billion opportunities for healthier societies empowered by rights and choices. But the playing field is not and has never been even. Based on gender, ethnicity, class, religion, sexual orientation, disability and origin, among other factors, too many are still exposed to discrimination, harassment and violence. We do ourselves no favors when neglecting those left behind.

Let no alarmist headline distract from the work at hand: investing in human and physical capital for inclusive, productive societies that uphold human and reproductive rights. Only then can we tackle the enormous challenges facing our planet and forge a world where health, dignity and education are rights and realities, not privileges and empty promises. In a world of 8 billion, there must always be space for possibility.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres

Background

World Population Day, which seeks to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues, was established by the then-Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989, an outgrowth of the interest generated by the Day of Five Billion, which was observed on 11 July 1987.

By resolution 45/216 of December 1990, the United Nations General Assembly decided to continue observing World Population Day to enhance awareness of population issues, including their relations to the environment and development.

The Day was first marked on 11 July 1990 in more than 90 countries. Since then, a number of a number of UNFPA country offices and other organizations and institutions commemorate World Population Day, in partnership with governments and civil society.

Recently, a “National Auction” was held in Tehran, an auction which was strongly protested against by the Iranian cultural advocates. It has been reported that a number of these auctions have been held in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, during which exquisite historical and cultural works of Iranian national heritage have been sold and then sent to buyers outside of Iran. In fact, this week brought forth the seventh round of these auctions, in which 40 works of art and artifacts were sold in an auction called “Iranian and Islamic classics”.

After seven of these auctions selling many pieces of cultural and national heritage and the protests of many cultural advocates, Morteza Adibzadeh, a director of museums and historical properties in Iran, reacted online and announced, “No permission has been issued by the General Directorate of Museums .

However, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has said, “These auctions were licensed by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, and it was with such a license that we had promised to send them abroad in our catalogs.” It is clear that the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, which for 40 years has allowed such destruction, unauthorized excavations, and the illegal removal of cultural and historical works of Iranians, has once again denied that it has given permission to auction, sell, and remove these national heritage and cultural works and artifacts which belong to the whole nation.

Adibzadeh told reporters that “the only thing that can be done now is to prevent these works from going abroad” and in this way, the buyers from these seven series of illegal auctions will not be able to get their hands on the purchased works. In order to get these sold items out of Iran, the buyers have to resort to smugglers who also work under the supervision of people affiliated with the Islamic government in Iran.

Source: www.savepasargad.com

World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. It falls each year on June 20 and celebrates the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution. World Refugee Day is an occasion to build empathy and understanding for their plight and to recognize their resilience in rebuilding their lives.

Background

Every minute 20 people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror. There are several types of forcibly displaced persons:

Refugees

A refugee is someone who fled his or her home and country owing to “a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion”, according to the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention. Many refugees are in exile to escape the effects of natural or human-made disasters.

UN Action

1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol

Refugees are among the most vulnerable people in the world. The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol help protect them. They are the only global legal instruments explicitly covering the most important aspects of a refugee’s life. According to their provisions, refugees deserve, as a minimum, the same standards of treatment enjoyed by other foreign nationals in a given country and, in many cases, the same treatment as nationals.

The 1951 Convention contains a number of rights and also highlights the obligations of refugees towards their host country. The cornerstone of the 1951 Convention is the principle of non-refoulement. According to this principle, a refugee should not be returned to a country where he or she faces serious threats to his or her life or freedom. This protection may not be claimed by refugees who are reasonably regarded as a danger to the security of the country, or having been convicted of a particularly serious crime, are considered a danger to the community.

Recently, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has always been opposed to Iran’s non-religious cultural and historical heritage, has entertained the idea of implementing a new policy. This new policy, which is still in discussion, has been described as a “plan to pay the right of discovery to the public” and has been explained as giving the right to any member of the public to excavate and discover historical artifacts in a policy of giving the culture back to the people. The ministry has also said that if this policy goes into effect, they would reward individuals who dig up and discover artifacts.

Since the Islamic Revolution, there has been no Iranian government sympathetic to the secular, and especially non-Shiite, cultural heritage in Iran, and as a result many sites have been destroyed by smugglers and unauthorized diggers searching for artifacts. This new policy, if approved, will no doubt make this worse and result in more destruction of cultural heritage in Iran.

In the face of this anti-cultural act by the Iranian government, supporters of cultural heritage and even some archaeologists and experts from Iran’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism have considered the issue to be a risky one. They firstly believe that such news at the public level and in the current situation is an irresponsible act, and secondly, if for any reason the Ministry cannot manage the “plan to pay the right of discovery to the public,” it will undoubtedly have dire consequences. It will also result in the encroachment upon and destruction of the ancient sites of Iran, which is also a part of world cultural heritage.

www.savepasargad.com

Archaeologists in the eastern Iraqi province of Diyala have uncovered underground passages in their excavations that appear to be secret passageways leading to a palace from the Sassanid era, according to the official Iraqi News Agency.

Archaeologists say the site was found within the city of Miqdadiyah in the northeastern part of Diyala province and estimate that it was built more than 1,400 years ago, where it had been repeatedly invaded by different groups.

According to archaeologists, this city was probably the summer residence of Khosrow Parviz, the Sassanid king.

Ahmad Abdul Jabbar Khums, head of Diyala archeology, said the findings show that “the city was an important economic and military center, and since it was built of clay, limestone, and mud, it was probably the residence of royal princes and families.” Life in the city apparently continued after the Arab invasion, but the inner courtyard of the palace was not accessed and even a mosque was built outside the mansion’s grounds.

The satellite images, along with surveys taken over a whole year to conduct and analyze the site, show different locations including a place where the Sassanid king likely spent a great deal of time, with wide corridors to receive guests and visitors.

Mehdi Azarian, director of the Siraf cultural heritage site, announced the beginning of a new round of archeological excavations in the historic port. “These excavations have been started with the cooperation of the University of Tehran and the license of the Archaeological Research Institute of the country since the beginning of June this year,” Azarian stated. The ancient port of Siraf is one of the oldest ports in the Persian Gulf, and played a significant role in trade and commerce in southern Iran for centuries. Much has been written about this port in historical texts.

This ancient port was first formally excavated by archaeologists before the Islamic Revolution for six seasons between 1966 and 1973 by a joint Anglo-Iranian delegation led by the late Professor David Whitehouse and representatives of the Archaeological Center of Iran. During that period, the team uncovered well-preserved architecture and several million objects dating back to the ninth century AD. After the revolution, a new round of excavations was carried out in 2009.

The director of the Siraf cultural heritage site has stated that new excavations will be carried out for 45 days with the aim of further understanding maritime trade and the state of the Sassanids in the historical port of Siraf, as Siraf was Iran’s most important port during the Sassanid period. It bears abundant evidence of Persian mastership and genius in seafaring, international relations, and interactions with other cultures and civilizations near and far.

www.savepasargad.com