ICOMOS mourns the passing of John Hurd, former President of the ICOMOS Advisory Committee, who contributed to ICOMOS with unwavering dedication in many capacities.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia ICOMOS had to make the difficult decision to cancel the GA2020 meeting foreseen in Sydney. Following this decision, the President of ICOMOS, at the request of a majority of the members of the Board, convened an online General Assembly on 23 and 24 July, whose sole purpose was to seek the agreement of the ICOMOS membership to hold all forthcoming 2020 statutory meetings as virtual meetings

ICOMOS members are invited to a kick-off Workshop to start a reflection group on anti-racist heritage practice hosted by Working Group 2020 (ICOMOS Germany) and EPWG, 19 July, 13:00 Paris Time.

At present, monuments of colonialists, oppressors and racists are being toppled in many places around the world. These actions are part of wider protests that demand changes in how we deal with history and how officially designated heritage addresses racism, colonialism, enslavement and oppression.

The ICOMOS "Our Common Dignity“ Working Group is honored to invite heritage experts, community leaders, and graduate students from Europe and around the world to training course "Heritage Communities and Human Rights" which will be held 2-5 September 2020 in Estonia and online.

On 23 April 2020, a majority of the members of the ICOMOS Board requested that I convene a General Assembly in accordance with Article 9-b of the Statutes, to be held virtually before 31 July 2020 (as allowed by temporary legislative measures taken by the French Government in response to the COVID19 pandemic), in order to seek the agreement of the General Assembly to hold forthcoming 2020 statutory meetings as virtual meetings.

Michael Petzet, late Honorary President of ICOMOS who passed away last year on 29 May, is celebrated by his friends and colleagues through a memorial book published by ICOMOS Germany on 18 April.