On March 3, 2023, at Newcastle University in Great Britain, the presentation of the English-language report by the National Committee of Blue Shield of Georgia – “Implementation of international humanitarian law for the protection of the cultural heritage of the occupied Tskhinvali Region” was held.

The presentation of the report was held in hybrid mode and all interested specialists and students had the opportunity to attend the event.

The report, together with the electronic map of immovable monuments of the Tskhinvali region, was prepared in 2018-2022 in cooperation with the UNESCO Department of Cultural Heritage Protection and Peace of Newcastle University and the Didi Liakhvi Valley Museum-Reserve.

The document includes information about the cultural heritage of the occupied Tskhinvali region. In particular, the war-time and post-war damage to immovable and movable monuments and their current and future threats are described and analyzed. In addition, the activities carried out by the Georgian side and international organizations for their protection are reviewed, and in the form of a conclusion, recommendations are presented for the implementation of international instruments for the protection of the said heritage.

The presentation was opened by the President of the International Blue Shield, Professor Peter Stone, with a report on the activities and main principles of the organization. The authors of the report, Manana Tevzadze, Chairman of the Georgian National Committee of Blue Shield, and Emma Cunliffe, Secretary of British Blue Shield, spoke about the work process, the main challenges, and the main findings.

Research assistants involved in the project discussed the research methodology, which included the analysis of various sources, namely eyewitness accounts, Georgian, English, Russian-language media, social media, and reports published by non-governmental organizations and international organizations. In addition, they spoke about analyzing satellite images through Google Earth, the team surveyed more than 700 immovable monuments within the framework of the project.

The event was attended by specialists in cultural heritage and international law, representatives of governmental, non-governmental, and research organizations, and the community interested in the topic from both the academic, museum, and cultural heritage protection fields, as well as military and civilian personnel working on cultural heritage protection from Great Britain.

You can watch the event recording

The report and immovable heritage map can be found here:

http://map.blueshield.ge/

It is planned to publish the Georgian translation of the report in the near future.

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