A/HRC/37/29 smuggling and illicit trafficking in cultural property. It invited States to adopt effective strategies to prevent destruction and to implement the recommendations in the relevant reports of the Special Rapporteur; underlined the important role that the Council could play in global efforts to protect cultural heritage; and called for the protection of cultural rights defenders. She underscored that a holistic approach was crucial in that respect; particularly a human rights perspective, which had been overlooked so far. 9. Ms. Bennoune noted with great concern the difficulties frontline cultural heritage experts faced in obtaining visas to participate in international events, as shown by the fact that Mr. Masoudi, former Director of the National Museum of Afghanistan, could not travel to attend the seminar. She thanked the core group for its leadership in the adoption of resolution 33/20 and urged it to continue pressing for its full implementation. 10. She recalled the efforts made by Mr. Masoudi and his colleagues to protect the museum’s objects from armed groups in the 1990s and 2000s. She encouraged the international community to show as much courage and commitment as those and other frontline heritage defenders around the world had, and called on the relevant authorities to ensure that they had the safety, resources and visas they needed to perform their work. 11. Ms. Bennoune recalled the numerous testimonies she had received of the suffering caused by the destruction of cultural heritage, such as the destruction of the al-Hadba minaret in Mosul, Iraq, a few days before the seminar, demonstrating that it was no mere theoretical construct to say that intentional destruction of cultural heritage was a violation of human rights; it was the lived reality for many people around the world. 12. She underscored that the right of access to and enjoyment of cultural heritage formed part of the right to take part in cultural life, and recalled that cultural rights were at the core of human identity and enablers for many other civil, economic, political and social rights. 13. Ms. Bennoune emphasized the need for a human rights approach to the protection of cultural heritage and outlined priorities identified during the preparatory expert meeting, including: (a) mainstreaming of a human rights approach to cultural heritage across the United Nations system, regional bodies and relevant national bodies, including military forces; (b) adopting a holistic approach which encompassed all regions, brought together tangible and intangible cultural heritage, focused on prevention, education and accountability and targeted acts committed by State and non-State actors, in conflict and non-conflict situations; and (c) ensuring consultation with relevant stakeholders at local, national, regional and international levels concerning the meanings, interpretations and uses of heritage, as well as its protection, preservation, reconstruction, memorialization and nomination to the UNESCO World Heritage List. 14. She further called for a fully gender-sensitive approach to the protection of cultural heritage that included women cultural heritage experts in relevant forums and addressed women’s challenges in accessing cultural heritage. 15. Ms. Bennoune committed to developing an implementation checklist setting concrete targets for States and civil society for the protection and enjoyment of cultural heritage. She provided a set of recommendations concerning ratification of relevant instruments, resource allocation, visa procedures and responses to extremist ideologies, which are reflected in section VI below. Video projection 16. A seven-minute video was screened of Plácido Domingo, President of Europa Nostra and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, in which he calls cultural heritage — tangible and intangible — “our anchor in time”. Cultural heritage tells the closely interconnected stories of who we were in the past, who we are today and who we could become in the future. Intentional destruction of cultural heritage seeks to erase the record of human creation and our collective memory as human beings. Such deplorable acts must be firmly condemned and, eventually, stopped. 4