UNESCO

Opening night at La Scala theater, in Milan Italy, Thursday Dec. 7, 2023. The tradition of Italian opera singing is among the 55 cultural practices to be inscribed to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage List this year.

Arts

55 cultural practices added to UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage

8:12pm December 08, 2023

by Chloe Veltman

More than 70 countries put forward nominations aimed at safeguarding a wide variety of diverse and unique traditions at a meeting in Botswana this week.

The flooded St. Mark's Square on Nov. 15, 2019, in Venice, two days after the city suffered a high tide.

Arts

Venice may be put on the endangered list, thanks to human-created climate change

5:25pm September 12, 2023

by Chloe Veltman

The impacts of climate change including related disasters, such as wildfires and sea level rise, are increasingly raising a question about how best to save cultural heritage.

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UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay delivers a speech Monday at the group's headquarters in Paris to announce the United States' request to resume membership in the organization.

The U.S. says it wants to rejoin UNESCO after exiting during the Trump administration

1:06pm June 12, 2023

by Joe Hernandez

The U.S. could reenter the cultural and educational body several years after it pulled out of the group citing an "anti-Israel bias" and other concerns.

A 14-year-old schoolgirl in Bangladesh poses with friends and neighbors on her wedding day. A new UNESCO report looks at progress — and the lack thereof — in ending child marriage.

It'll take 300 years to wipe out child marriage at the current pace of progress

5:07pm May 03, 2023

by Rhitu Chatterjee

UNESCO's new report on child marriages shows signs of progress. Yet each year, 12 million girls marry before they turn 18. And the pandemic, climate change and conflict has only made things worse.

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The Odesa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre

Arts

Odesa and other sites are added to the list of World Heritage In Danger

2:10pm January 25, 2023

by Elizabeth Blair

Odesa in Ukraine has been added to the cultural sites that UNESCO is highlighting. Also being included are ancient sites in Lebanon and Yemen.

Bakery owner Florence Poirier smells a baguette fresh from the oven Thursday as Mylene Poirier stands next to her at a bakery, in Versailles, west of Paris.

World News

The baguette enters the upper crust as it's added to the U.N. cultural heritage list

2:44pm November 30, 2022

by The Associated Press

The humble but versatile French loaf is recognized by UNESCO as a tradition worthy of preservation by humanity. French officials have warned that closure of traditional bakeries put the bread at risk.

A cook prepares borsch at a March 2021 event in Kyiv to promote Ukraine's bid for UNESCO to recognize the dish as part of the country's historical heritage.

UNESCO declares borsch cooking an endangered Ukrainian heritage

3:20pm July 01, 2022

by Alina Selyukh

Ukraine's culture minister declared victory in "the war for borsch" as Russia also claims the hearty beet soup. UNESCO says the invasion threatens Ukraine's borsch culture with "extreme urgency."

The Menorah memorial is seen outside of Kharkiv at the Drobitsky Yar Holocaust memorial, a location that saw a mass killing of Jewish people by Nazis during WWII. UNESCO included the memorial in its list of sites that have sustained damaged since Russia i

World News

UNESCO says 53 cultural sites in Ukraine have been damaged since the Russian invasion

6:17pm April 02, 2022

by Deepa Shivaram

The damaged sites include churches, historic buildings, museums and monuments. A UNESCO spokesperson said they fear more sites will be added to the list, as the group works to verify the destruction.

A guide walks past a sign asking for silence near the winter home of monarch butterflies in El Rosario reserve near Ocampo, Michoacán, in Mexico on Friday.

Sadness And Worry After 2 Men Connected To Butterfly Sanctuary Are Found Dead

7:28pm February 03, 2020

by Laurel Wamsley

Millions of monarch butterflies migrate to the mountains of Mexico each winter. Authorities are now investigating the apparent murders of an activist and tour guide at the Michoacán reserve.

The UNESCO-listed cultural site Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan, Iran, shown here in 2014, is known for its immense mosques, picturesque bridges and ancient bazaar.

Trump Says He'll Target Iran's Cultural Sites. That's Illegal

8:39pm January 06, 2020

by Laurel Wamsley

The Hague Convention, signed by the U.S., requires "refraining from any act of hostility" against cultural property. The Pentagon educates troops about their obligations to safeguard such sites.

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