Press Release No.2002-100

WORLD HERITAGE HAS PRIDE OF PLACE AT
UN HEADQUARTERS IN NEW YORK

Paris, December 6 - The travelling photo exhibition of UNESCO's world heritage sites - Our Past, Our Future - organized jointly by UNESCO and the Chinese Permanent Delegation to the United Nations, was inaugurated on December 4 at UN Headquarters in New York, where it will be on show until January 31.

The exhibition of large colour prints by internationally-known photographers shows the cultural diversity of our planet. It showcases in particular the riches of cultural heritage in Algeria, China, France, Jordan, Peru and Russia.

The opening of the exhibition in New York was part of a day of debate at the 57th session of the UN General Assembly devoted to the current UN Year for Cultural Heritage, which UNESCO has been coordinating throughout the UN system.

In the presence of numerous representatives of United Nations Member States, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture, Mounir Bouchenaki, thanked member-states on behalf of UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura for the support they and various private partners had given to the exhibition, notably the Chinese and Japanese authorities, the World Monuments Fund and UNESCO goodwill ambassador Marianna Vardinoyannis. Such support, he said, showed the unanimous commitment of the international community to world cultural heritage and its role in building a dialogue between cultures.

China's Permanent Representative to the UN, Wang Yingfan, noted the effective cooperation between UNESCO and his country where cultural heritage was concerned. He said his country gave particular importance to the next meeting of the World Heritage Committee, to be held next June in the Chinese city of Suzhou.

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