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Naming World Heritage sites - places like the Egyptian pyramids or the Statue of Liberty that are given a special UN status and protection - is one of the many programmes run by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).
Unesco has long faced accusations of corruption, mismanagement and political bias in its resolutions and the United States and Israel said on Thursday they would leave the agency because of what they said was a longstanding anti-Israel bias and the need for reform.
Beyond the diplomatic disputes, here's a look at some things that Unesco does.
World Heritage sites Its World Heritage Committee each year designates sites considered “of outstanding value to humanity” and intervenes when sites are in danger of destruction or damage. The program provides countries with technical assistance and professional training to preserve the sites, and now includes “intangible” heritage such as folk songs or traditional dances in its lists. A World Heritage site designation is coveted and seen as a boost to tourism.
Empowering girls Unesco works to improve literacy, with a special focus on girls in poor countries who get little or no schooling. The agency provides teacher training and materials and encourages programmes for girls to pursue careers in science.
Holocaust education Like the rest of the UN, Unesco was created in response to the horrors of Second World War , and particularly Nazi crimes . Amid concerns that the agency's Arab members have used Unesco to pass anti-Israel resolutions, Unesco has worked in recent years on Holocaust awareness projects. That includes educational materials in multiple languages and organising visits to former Nazi concentration camps.
Show all 20 1 /20New Unesco World Heritage Sites New Unesco World Heritage Sites Lake District The combined work of nature and human activity in the Lake District has produced a harmonious landscape in which the mountains are mirrored in the lakes. This landscape was greatly appreciated from the 18th century onwards by the Picturesque and later Romantic movements, which celebrated it in paintings, drawings and words.
Nick Bodle
New Unesco World Heritage Sites City of Yazd The City of Yazd is located in the middle of the Iranian plateau, close to the Spice and Silk Roads. The earthen architecture of Yazd has escaped the modernisation that destroyed many traditional earthen towns, retaining its traditional districts, the qanat system, traditional houses, bazars, hammams, mosques, synagogues, Zoroastrian temples and the historic garden of Dolat-abad.
ICHHTO
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Venetian Works of Defence The fortifications throughout the Stato da Terra protected the Republic of Venice from other European powers to the northwest and those of the Stato da Mar protected the sea routes and ports in the Adriatic Sea to the Levant.
Alberto Ghilardi
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Valongo Wharf Located in central Rio de Janeiro, this site encompasses the entirety of Jornal do Comércio Square. It is in the former harbour area of Rio de Janeiro in which the old stone wharf was built for the landing of enslaved Africans reaching the South American continent from 1811 onwards. It is the most important physical trace of the arrival of African slaves on the American continent.
Milton Guran
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Tarnowskie Góry Lead-Silver-Zinc Mine Located in southern Poland, one of the main mining areas of central Europe, the site includes the entire underground mine with adits, shafts, galleries and water management system.
Tarnowskie Góry Land Lovers' Association
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Taputapuātea Taputapuātea on Ra’iatea Island is at the centre of the Polynesian Triangle, a vast portion of the Pacific Ocean dotted with islands, and the last part of the globe to be settled by humans.
SCP
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Temple Zone of Sambor Prei Kuk The archaeological site of Sambor Prei Kuk has been identified as Ishanapura, the capital of the Chenla Empire that flourished in the late 6th and early 7th centuries CE. The vestiges of the city cover an area of 25 square km and include a walled city centre as well as numerous temples, 10 of which are octagonal and unique specimens of their genre in southeast Asia.
So Sokun Theary
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Qinghai Hoh Xil Located in the north-eastern extremity of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in China, this is the largest and highest plateau in the world. This extensive area of alpine mountains and steppe systems is situated more than 4,500m above sea level, where sub-zero average temperatures prevail all year-round.
Peking University
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Okinoshima Located 60km off the western coast of Kyushu island, Okinoshima is an exceptional example of the tradition of worship of a sacred island. The archaeological sites have been preserved virtually intact, and provide a chronological record of how the rituals performed there changed from the 4th to the 9th centuries CE.
World Heritage Promotion Committee
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Mbanza Kongo When the Portuguese arrived in Mbanza Kongo in the 15th century they added stone buildings constructed using European methods to the existing landscape. Mbanza Kongo illustrates, more than anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, the profound changes caused by the introduction of Christianity and the arrival of the Portuguese into Central Africa.
INPC
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Los Alerces national park The Los Alerces national park is located in the Andes of northern Patagonia. Successive glaciations have moulded the landscape in the region creating spectacular features such as moraines, glacial cirques and clear-water lakes.
Ricardo Villalba
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Kulangsu Kulangsu is a tiny island located on the estuary of the Chiu-lung River facing the city of Xiamen. With the opening of a commercial port at Xiamen in 1843 and the establishment of the island as an international settlement in 1903, this island off the southern coast of the Chinese empire suddenly became an important window for Sino-foreign exchanges. Kulangsu is an exceptional example of the cultural fusion that emerged from these exchanges.
Cultural Heritage Conservation Center of THAD
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Kujataa Kujataa is a sub-arctic farming landscape located in the southern region of Greenland. It bears witness to the cultural histories of the Norse hunter-gatherers who started arriving from Iceland in the 10th century, and of the Norse farmers, Inuit hunters and Inuit farming communities that developed from the end of the 18th century.
Christian K. Madsen
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Assumption Cathedral The Assumption Monastery illustrates in its location and architectural composition the political and missionary programme developed by Tsar Ivan IV to extend the Moscow state. The cathedral’s frescoes are among the rarest examples of Eastern Orthodox mural paintings.
Dmitrii Karpov
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Aphrodisias Located in southwestern Turkey, in the upper valley of the Morsynus River, the site consists of two components: the archaeological site of Aphrodisias and the marble quarries northeast of the city. The temple of Aphrodite dates from the 3rd century BC and the city was built one century later.
Aphrodisias Museum
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Swabian Jura Modern humans first arrived in Europe 43,000 years ago during the last ice age. One of the areas where they took up residence was the Swabian Jura in southern Germany. Excavated from the 1860s, six caves have revealed items dating from 43,000 to 33,000 years ago. Among them are carved figurines of animals, musical instruments and items of personal adornment.
S. M. Heidenreich
New Unesco World Heritage Sites ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape The ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape is located at the border with Botswana and Namibia. The large expanse of sand contains evidence of human occupation from the Stone Age to the present and is associated with the culture of the formally nomadic ǂKhomani San people and the strategies that allowed them to adapt to harsh desert conditions.
Francois Odendaal Productions
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Dauria Shared between Mongolia and the Russian Federation, this site is an outstanding example of the Daurian Steppe eco-region, which extends from eastern Mongolia into Russian Siberia and north-eastern China. Cyclical climate changes with distinct dry and wet periods led to a wide diversity of species and ecosystems of global significance.
V. Kirilyuk
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Hebron/Al-Khalil The use of a local limestone shaped the construction of the old town of Hebron/Al-Khalil during the Mamluk period between 1250 and 1517. The place became a site of pilgrimage for the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Hesham Sarsour
New Unesco World Heritage Sites Asmara Located at more than 2,000m above sea level, the capital of Eritrea developed from the 1890s onwards as a military outpost for the Italian colonial power. It is an exceptional example of early modernist urbanism at the beginning of the 20th century and its application in an African context.
Asmara Heritage Project
Climate change The agency seeks to coordinate climate knowledge, including studies of impacts on Unesco's network of biosphere reserves, and to improve international education about how global warming occurs and affects people around the world.
AP
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