Saudi Heritage Commission, ALECSO Sign Agreement to Hold Joint Executive Program

Saudi Heritage Commission, ALECSO Sign Agreement to Hold Joint Executive Program
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Saudi Heritage Commission, ALECSO Sign Agreement to Hold Joint Executive Program

Saudi Heritage Commission, ALECSO Sign Agreement to Hold Joint Executive Program

Saudi Arabia’s Heritage Commission signed on Sunday a cooperation agreement with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) to hold an executive program to qualify 100 Arab specialists in the field of world heritage.

The agreement was signed during the two-day ALECSO Forum for Business and Partnerships, an initiative led by Saudi Arabia, which kicked on in Tunisia on Sunday.

The agreement seeks to establish a rehabilitation forum for young professionals to build their capacities in world heritage and enable them to learn the best international practices in the field.

The executive program aims to raise awareness and knowledge through the development of joint educational and training programs targeting professionals and experts, developing skills and expertise by organizing collaborative workshops and training courses covering a variety of areas of world heritage, exchanging experiences according to best practices and technologies, and boosting international cooperation in heritage preservation.

The initiative of the "ALECSO Business and Partnerships Forum" was approved by the Executive Council of the organization at its 119th session, and is the first in the history of the organization since its establishment 53 years ago.

As the first of its kind among similar regional and international organizations, it is based on the concept of partnerships and financing to ensure the development of ALECSO's business by providing an appropriate platform to reach successful partnerships based on collective agreements to finance the Organization's projects and programs.

Saudi Arabia will host ALECSO’s 21st regular meeting of its Executive Council and the 27th regular meeting of its General Conference in Jeddah from May 15 to 18.

The hosting is a result of the generous patronage and unwavering support extended to the education, culture, and science sectors by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, and Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister.



UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
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UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File

The Saint Hilarion complex, one of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East, has been put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the war in Gaza, the body said Friday.
UNESCO said the site, which dates back to the fourth century, had been put on the endangered list at the demand of Palestinian authorities and cited the "imminent threats" it faced.
"It's the only recourse to protect the site from destruction in the current context," Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, told AFP, referring to the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
In December, the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict decided to grant "provisional enhanced protection" -- the highest level of immunity established by the 1954 Hague Convention -- to the site.
UNESCO had then said it was "already concerned about the state of conservation of sites, before October 7, due to the lack of adequate policies to protect heritage and culture" in Gaza.
The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.