Unesco in afghanistan
UNESCO’S MANDATE
The cultural heritage of Afghanistan has suffered irreversible losses during the past two decades of war. For many years, UNESCO has been helping to protect it and is continuing to take all possible steps to ensure that it is preserved. In January 2002, UNESCO was mandated by the Afghan Interim Administration to coordinate all international activities aimed at safeguarding that heritage, and for this purpose has set up the International Coordination Committee for the Safeguarding of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage. The Committee’s work concerns the following key areas: the development of a long-term strategy, local capacity-building by providing training and equipment, implementation of international conventions, documentation and the creation of national inventories, reconstruction of the National Museum in Kabul with its conservation laboratory, rehabilitation of the Ghazni museums, consolidation of the Jam Minaret’s foundations, conservation of the Gawhar Shad mausoleum and Fourth and Fifth Minarets in Heart, conservation of the fragments of the two Bamiyan Buddhas, as well as stabilization of the niches and cliff faces and protection of the wall paintings in the caves.