Two days inter-agency meetings took place 19-20 October at the Ministry of Culture and Monuments Protection in Tbilisi (Georgia) embedded in a cooperation scheme between the MoCMP and WATCH that started within the framework of the EU CIUDAD project War Free World Heritage Listed Cities (www.warfreeheritage.net) focusing on the protection of the World Heritage sites of Mtskheta according to the UNESCO 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols. These activities were conducted with backstopping from an advisory board that included UNESCO, ICCROM, the Austrian Army and the International Institute of Humanitarian Law.
WATCH established cooperation with Georgia in 2010 in support to the gradual development in the country of risk preparedness, mitigation, and response measures for the protection of the World Heritage Sites of Mtskheta and its vast tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Risk identification and assessment as well as the definition of initial mitigation measures were part of prior cooperation.
By the end of the two days meetings, HE the Minister of Culture, Mr. Mikhail Giorgadze and the Deputy Minister, Mr. Levan Kharatishvili met with WATCH Secretary General Mr. Claudio Cimino. A review of the current state of implementation of the Convention in Georgia was the main topic of discussion and perspective cooperation was envisaged to further develop protective policies that could be extended at country level as a matter of sustainability. In fact, since the ratification of the Second Protocol to the 1954 Convention, Georgia undertook a number of concrete initiatives to abide with its commitment as State Party.
This activity was embedded within a several days WATCH mission to Georgia organised in a coordination between various Georgian stakeholders including key institutions, local authorities and the Georgian National Committee of the Blue Shield.