World War One cemeteries, Rwanda genocide sites, Argentine torture centre declared Unesco World Heri

World War One cemeteries, Rwanda genocide sites, Argentine torture centre declared Unesco World Heritage



The facade of the former Navy Mechanics School and detention centre known as ESMA, which was used as an illegal detention and torture centre during Argentina's last dictatorship (1976 to 1983), is pictured on the day its Museum and Site of Memory was declared an Unesco World Heritage, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sept 19, 2023.

PHOTO: Reuters

PUBLISHED ON
SEPTEMBER 20, 2023 9:29 PM


PARIS — World War One cemeteries in Belgium and France, the hills of Rwanda's 1994 genocide and a former torture centre in Argentina have been declared Unesco World Heritage sites as the UN agency ends a moratorium on memorial sites for human suffering.

So far, the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan have been the only memorial sites inscribed on the United Nations' cultural agency's closely watched World Heritage list.

At a meeting of the Unesco World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday (Sept 20), Unesco member states agreed to add the World War One and Rwanda sites to the list, after adding the Argentina torture memorial on Tuesday.

"The examination of these three dossiers marks a new stage in the role of World Heritage on a global scale," a Unesco briefing note said ahead of the decision.

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https://www.asiaone.com/world/world-war-one-cemeteries-rwanda-genocide-sites-argentine-torture-centre-declared-unesco-world