A/HRC/37/29 17. In the video, Mr. Domingo said that he had been deeply moved by the heroic stories of those cultural heritage defenders who had taken the greatest risks to protect their cultural heritage, sometimes even at the cost of their lives. He stressed that our best tribute to them would be to support their work and stand with the heritage heroes of today. 18. He underscored that it was our human right to protect and preserve cultural heritage; to access it, enjoy it and transmit it to future generations. Those rights could not be taken for granted and required our collective, vigorous defence. He endorsed the work of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. III. Existing protection mechanisms and recent developments A. Statements by panellists 19. Mr. Boccardi noted that cultural rights were enablers for every other right and ultimately for peace, security and sustainable development. Conflict would persist unless those rights were addressed, protected and realized. 20. He stressed that in the last 15 years the work of UNESCO had placed more emphasis on the human dimension of culture and on its instrumental role in guaranteeing peace and sustainable development. That had led to the adoption of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2003; the Policy for the Integration of a Sustainable Development Perspective into the Processes of the World Heritage Convention in 2015; and the Strategy and Action Plan for the Reinforcement of Action for the Protection of Culture and the Promotion of Cultural Pluralism in the Event of Armed Conflict, also in 2015. 21. The Action Plan contained several elements required for the protection of cultural heritage, including from a human rights perspective, such as: (a) preparedness in times of peace, including by documenting cultural heritage; (b) strengthening of national institutional, legal and judicial frameworks; (c) adopting measures to strengthen resilience; (d) strengthening capacity-building in the cultural heritage sector and integrating culture and heritage within humanitarian, security and peacebuilding operations so that cultural rights were considered in conflict prevention and recovery processes; and (e) mainstreaming cultural rights and cultural diversity into education. 22. Mr. Boccardi appealed to the Human Rights Council to ensure continued work on resolution 33/20 and to support the UNESCO Strategy and Action Plan. He proposed working collaboratively with the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights on a manual for the application of a cultural rights approach to humanitarian, security and peacebuilding operations, as well as a human rights approach to heritage conservation. He encouraged UNESCO and the Council to support that endeavour. 23. Ms. Gerstenblith noted that the destruction of cultural heritage could be seen as a security issue as well as a heritage and humanitarian concern. The destruction of cultural heritage, alongside the suppression of other cultural rights, was an indicator — often an early warning — of genocide and human rights abuses. 24. With regard to legal developments, Ms. Gerstenblith welcomed recent Security Council resolutions calling for the preservation of cultural heritage in the Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq and Mali 2 and increased ratification and implementation of international humanitarian law instruments that protected cultural property and cultural heritage during armed conflict, such as the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols. 25. She also recalled the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, and welcomed the legislation adopted in Germany in 2016 broadening the application of the 2 Resolutions 2347 (2017), 2359 (2017), 2295 (2016), 2199 (2015) and 2100 (2013). 5