Next year marks 30 years since Bosnia and Herzegovina became a member of UNESCO. Speaking about that period for FENA, Head of the UNESCO Office in BiH, Siniša Šešum, points out that the cooperation between Bosnia and Herzegovina and UNESCO throughout that three-decade period has been at a very high level.
“This can be seen not only through the implementation of projects and activities, but through daily cooperation with a large number of institutions, representatives of civil society, cultural workers and artists, and individuals from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are very glad that UNESCO, as an organization of the United Nations, is recognized as a reliable partner in almost all fields of UNESCO’s mandate, especially in the sectors of culture, education, science, media and communications,” stated Šešum.
Summarizing this year, Šešum pointed out that taking into account that we are still in the process of recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, it can be said that this year has been very successful. This does not refer exclusively to the successes of UNESCO, but in general the activities of Bosnia and Herzegovina related to the mandate and cooperation with UNESCO.
“Two nominations of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the UNESCO World Heritage List were completed this year. These are nominations to the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the List of Intangible Heritage of the Sarajevo Canton, the joint statement of the Ministers of Education of different levels of government in BiH on priorities in the field of strengthening the quality of education, the Joint Statement of mayors and municipality mayors from forty-seven cities and municipalities throughout BiH with which they undertook not to use hate speech in public space, especially on social networks. We still have a large number of other activities, and some of the most important ones have been listed,” emphasized Siniša Šešum, Head of the UNESCO Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Two nominations for the World Heritage List are ‘Vjetrenica Cave’ and ‘Travertine waterfalls on the Una River in Martin Brod’, while Nevesinje Olympiad and the serial nomination of the Lipizzaner Horse Breeding Tradition are nominations for the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Register of Best Conservation Practices.
Šešum also points out that there is a large number of regional activities in which BiH is involved together with UNESCO, and they are getting very positive results. After the earthquake that hit the Stolac and Ljubinje municipalities at the beginning of the year, UNESCO, on the initiative and request of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, provided funds for the reconstruction of schools damaged by the earthquake in those two municipalities.
Speaking about the state’s relationship with the properties inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Šešum assesses that, in general, BiH’s relationship with world heritage properties does not differ too much from the situation in other countries that are signatories to the Convention.
Three years have passed since the launch of the UNESCO city of film initiative, and Šešum is of the opinion that it is an extremely positive story, for which it must be emphasized that UNESCO is very satisfied with the development of activities so far.
“Through these three years, Sarajevo has positioned itself more adequately on the Creative Cities Network. Sarajevo as a creative city, but also the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, through activities related especially to the Sarajevo Film Festival, contribute to the realization of concrete economic benefits, which directly contribute to the improvement of citizens’ lives and also to the promotion of a positive image of BiH,” he underlined.
When it comes to the Sustainable Travel Pledge project, Head of the UNESCO Office in BiH, Siniša Šešum, said that it is under development and that he hopes to have some new information and more concrete results of the project in December.
