(VOVworld) - UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova addressed a public briefing of the United Nations Security Council on “Maintenance of international peace and security: destruction and trafficking of cultural heritage by terrorist groups and in situations of armed conflict,” where the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution for the protection of heritage.

UN Security Council adopts resolution for the protection of cultural heritage (Photo: TTXVN)

Irina Bokova said “The deliberate destruction of heritage is a war crime, and it has become a tactic of war to tear societies over the long term, in a strategy of cultural cleansing. This is why defending cultural heritage is more than a cultural issue, it is a security imperative, inseparable from that of defending human lives.”