Schiller Institute Delivers Protest Petition to UNESCO Headquarters

Feb. 26—A delegation from the Schiller Institute and the Ibn Sina Center for Research and Development Feb. 22 delivered a petition to UNESCO world headquarters in Paris, calling on UNESCO to re-establish relations with Afghanistan in order to help save the numerous cultural relics which are in danger from terrorist groups and other predators, and demanding that UNESCO re-establish activities of cultural cooperation with all nations, such as Syria, where the agency has selectively imposed sanctions and bans.

Schiller Institute founder and leader Helga Zepp-LaRouche and Paris Schiller Institute leader Karel Vereycken led the delegation, and issued statements to the media outside UNESCO headquarters. Zepp-LaRouche said, “If the sanctions continue, it would mean to continue the geopolitical game which has been played with Afghanistan for a very long time. Our common cultural heritage must be above ephemeral strife, so we will fight for this for the sake of our own one identity as one human species, or as one common heritage.” The four-minute video statement is here.

The delegation released a statement, which was delivered to UNESCO, issued on Jan. 31 by the Ministry of Information and Culture, of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, signed by Deputy Minister of Culture and Art Mowlavi Atiqullah Azizi. It states in part, “This Ministry asks UNESCO and other international organizations, working on the preservation of the world’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage, to support Afghanistan in the preservation of its tangible and intangible cultural heritage, including the ones belonging to Islamic and non/pre-Islamic periods of its history….”

Following the total boycott of Afghanistan in 2021 by the United States, UNESCO also ended contact with Afghan authorities, despite the fact that many other UN agencies continued activities in the country, and function there to this day.

At a conference in Kabul in November 2023, on economic reconstruction, attended by a Schiller Institute delegation, it was decided that world public opinion should be brought to bear to change the UNESCO decision.

A petition was formulated, which has gained 550 signatures to date, including many Afghan experts—women as well as men—archeologists, historians, artists, diplomats, and leading personalities from five continents. The signatories range broadly from members of the Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan to famed filmmaker Oliver Stone.

The full list of signatories, the text of the petition, and the statement of appreciation of the efforts of the Ibn Sina R&D Center, from the Deputy Minister of Culture and Art in Afghanistan were delivered to the Paris UNESCO headquarters today. These are available in full on the websites of the Schiller Institute in France and the United States. The Ibn Sina R&D Center and Schiller Institute invite more people to join this international effort.

The petition, titled “International Call To Lift Sanctions Against Cultural Heritage Cooperation” states, as its concluding points, "3) We regret that UNESCO, which should raise its voice against any new form of ‘cultural and scientific apartheid,’ has repeatedly worsened the situation by politicizing issues beyond its prerogatives. 4) Therefore, we call on the international community to end immediately this form of ‘collective punishment,’ which creates suffering and injustice, promotes ignorance, and endangers humanity’s capacity for mutual respect and understanding.

“The progress of scientific knowledge, in a positive climate permitting all to share it, is, by its very nature, beneficial to each and to all and to the very foundation of a true peace.”

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