10 May. From 3 – 5 May, an interdisciplinary group of professionals met at ICCROM to design the programme of the second edition of the International Course on First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Conflict (FAC11), to be held in Rome from 26 September – 28 October 2011.

The purpose of this course is to equip professionals with knowledge and practical skills allowing them to plan and implement an effective first response to endangered cultural heritage in times of conflict and to successfully integrate cultural heritage protection in plans for post-war recovery.

Central to this ICCROM initiative is the key notion that cultural heritage plays an important role in helping communities recover from conflict and that concerns for its protection must be integrated into the planning of peacetime preparatory measures, post-conflict recovery strategies, as well as humanitarian assistance.

The design meeting was attended by representatives of the Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit of York University, United Kingdom; Nationaal Archief, Netherlands; Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro (ISCR), Italy; The Advisory service on International Humanitarian Law of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Switzerland; the Corporación Proyecto Patrimonio, Colombia; the School of Archaeology of University College Dublin, Ireland, and members of ICCROM’s Collections Unit.

Selected participants for the second edition of the course will be notified shortly.

This initiative was made possible thanks to the generous contribution of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MiBAC).

In 2005, ICCROM also organized a forum on the topic: ‘Armed Conflict and Conservation: promoting cultural heritage in post war recovery’. The resulting publication is available for purchase from the ICCROM bookshop (hard copy) or for free download.

updated on: 12 May, 2011