Funds Needed to Register Leading Personalities With UNESCO

News Category: Cultural

The process of registering prominent cultural personalities on a list drawn up by Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) to be submitted to UNESCO for enlisting on global human treasury has been suspended due to lack of funds.

Director General of ICHTO’s Department for Registration of Cultural Heritage Nasser Pazouki said that his department was involved in registering prominent figures but the project had to be suspended due to lack of funds.

He said that UNESCO has currently launched a program to identify human treasury of the international community and Iran has to provide a list of its national figures for registration with the international body. He said that the list of national cultural personalities should be approved by the ICHTO High Council before it is submitted to UNESCO and necessary formalities should be completed.

He said that the international convention places no restriction on the number of national figures but stipulates that the formalities be completed by the deadline set by UNESCO. “Any delay will be detrimental since Iran may lose the opportunity to do the job,“ he cautioned.

He said that department could not complete the list of prominent national personalities by the end of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 21, 2006) and in the next fiscal year, funds will be available for the purpose.

“The department is ready to help register national figures with UNESCO’s Moral Heritage as soon as funds are forthcoming,“ Pazouki concluded.