2017 Blue Shield General Assembly

The Blue Shield, of which ICOMOS is a founding member, held its 2017 General Assembly in Vienna (Austria) from 12 to 15 September. We were represented by Kirsti Kovanen, ICOMOS Secretary General & ICOMOS Finland member, and Bijan Rouhani, Vice President of ICORP (our International Scientific Committee on Risk Preparedness), who is our representative on the Blue Shield Board. In addition, a strong delegation of ICOMOS members active in their National Blue Shield Committees from Australia, Italy, Norway, Japan and Poland, among other countries, were also present. For more information, click here.

We take this occasion to pay hommage to the late Leo van Nispen tot Sevenaer, who passed away on 8 May 2017. As former Director of ICOMOS, in the early 1990’s, before many considered it an important and crucial subject, Leo was instrumental in putting the issue of risk preparedness firmly on the map as a concern for ICOMOS and the conservation community in general and in stimulating the creation of the Blue Shield by organising the first roundtables of the so called Inter-Agency Task Force which brought together UNESCO, ICCROM, ICOM, IFLA, ICA, and many others, and its subsequent recognition within the 2nd Protocol of the 1954 Hague Convention through close collaboration with Lyndel Prott at UNESCO. In his memory, let us continue this important work.