Earlier this month the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova appealed to all military forces in Mali and asked them to protect the cultural heritage of the country, which has already been severely damaged. In a statement Ms. Bokova invoked the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of armed conflict and its two Protocols. She sent a letter to Malian and French authorities urging them to respect the Convention and in addition, mobilized the UNESCO’s Emergency Fund, the World Heritage Fund to protect the Cultural Property of Mali.
