ICOMOS joins forces with UNESCO and ICCROM to support Ukrainian heritage professionals

In response to the urgent needs the Ukrainian cultural sector is experiencing, and in the framework of UNESCO's emergency assistance programme for Ukraine, the multisectoral programme ‘Support for Ukraine in culture and education through UNESCO’ funded by the Japan-Fund-in Trust was launched in February 2023, with a culture-specific component, namely ‘Emergency response for World Heritage and cultural property: damage assessment and protection'.

5 months later, a team of ICOMOS and ICCROM trainers traveled to Kyiv to provide on-the-ground technical assistance, as well as co-lead a capacity development activity to strengthen the knowledge and expertise of a core group of 20 Ukrainian heritage professionals through a training workshop/inception course on ‘Documentation for State of Conservation for World Heritage properties and Disaster Risk Management for Heritage which took place from July 26 to July 30, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. 

Starting with this first training, ICOMOS, as an Advisory Body to the World Heritage Committee, co-designed and will implement a full programme of capacity building and technical assistance in advanced documentation for emergency response on World Heritage and cultural property, in close coordination with UNESCO and ICCROM. The overall aim of the training was to develop a holistic approach to the sustainable and urgent protection of Ukraine's rich cultural heritage.  

As part of the inception course on “Documentation for State of Conservation for World Heritage properties and Disaster Risk Management for Heritage”, in close consultation with UNESCO and along with the training modules delivered by ICCROM, ICOMOS offered lectures on the topics of advanced digital documentation of the state of conservation for World Heritage and Tentative List sites (overview of cultural heritage documentation techniques and introduction to photogrammetry and laser scanning for cultural heritage documentation and for risk preparedness (basic principles of preparedness for cultural heritage in ongoing crisis situations; basic principles of analysing risks and problem-solving in grey zones, as well as problem analysis and initial planning during an emergency).

The training included site work and a case study specific to Saint-Sophia Cathedral, a component of the World Heritage property ‘Kyiv: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra’.

Further activities will continue in the coming months, stay tuned!

Photo credits: UNESCO/Yuriy Yurchenko. From top to bottom:
-Kateryna Chuyeva, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, during the official opening of the training workshop on July 26, 2023
-A participant reads the biographies of UNESCO officers and ICOMOS project coordinator Kristina Biceva and ICOMOS trainer Zeynep Gül Ünal.
-ICOMOS Risk Preparedness trainer Zeynep Gül Ünal introducing Disaster Risk Management to Cultural Heritage

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