A/RES/56/8 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 4 December 2001 Fifty-sixth session Agenda item 177 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly [without reference to a Main Committee (A/56/L.13 and Add.1)] 56/8. United Nations Year for Cultural Heritage, 2002 The General Assembly, Recalling the international conventions dealing with the protection of cultural and natural heritage, including the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict adopted at The Hague in 1954 1 and the two Protocols thereto, the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, 2 and the 1972 Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, 3 and recalling also the 1989 Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore, 4 Welcoming the ratification of the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage by one hundred and sixty-seven States parties, and noting the inscription of more than six hundred and ninety sites on the World Heritage List, Mindful of the importance of protecting the world cultural tangible and intangible heritage as a common ground for the promotion of mutual understanding and enrichment among cultures and civilizations, Noting the work already undertaken to protect the world cultural and natural heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, including international campaigns, Welcoming the decisions adopted at the twenty-ninth and thirty-first sessions of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the one hundred and sixty-first session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization envisaging and calling for the proclamation of a United Nations year for cultural heritage, _______________ 1 United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 249, No. 3511. Ibid., vol. 823, No. 11806. 3 Ibid., vol. 1037, No. 15511. 4 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Records of the General Conference, Twenty-fifth Session, Paris, 17 October–16 November 1989, vol. 1: Resolutions, annex IB. 2 01 47556