Chairman of Department of Culture and Tourism co-presides

The second board meeting of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas, ALIPH, was held in Geneva, Switzerland, with the aim of electing the President of ALIPH, confirm prospective new board members and make key decisions on the administrative set up of the organisation to ensure that the foundation is fully operational by the end of 2017.

As representative of the UAE, a founding and permanent member state of the board, Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi, said, "Since the establishment of ALIPH in March 2017, the board has worked rapidly to build the foundation and establish a framework for its operation in order to meet the urgent need for an organisation that safeguards endangered cultural heritage. Our aim is to ensure that ALIPH is fully operational by the end of 2017, and the progress made in this second board meeting shows that we are well on track to meet this goal. The international community has responded to the call to action made in the Safeguarding Endangered Heritage Conference held in Abu Dhabi in December 2016, and thus far we have made great progress in raising awareness of the critical state that many priceless heritage sites are currently facing, and the impetus to develop a global framework to target this issue."

Since the first board meeting, the headquarters agreement with the Swiss Authorities was signed and a permanent office was established in Geneva under the aegis of the Swiss authorities. During the meeting, board member Thomas Kaplan was appointed as President of ALIPH.

Together with Kaplan, Al Mubarak and Jack Lang were appointed as members of the Executive Committee of the Board. Kaplan is an American philanthropist, collector and entrepreneur who donated US$1 million to the foundation upon its establishment in March. Kaplan’s donation alongside the UAE's financial contribution of $15 million, with pledges from France ($30 million), Saudi Arabia ($20 million), Kuwait ($5 million), Luxembourg (3 million Euros), and Morocco ($1.5 million), will finance projects for the implementation of preventive, emergency protection, conservation and restoration programmes for cultural property endangered due to armed conflict.

The establishment of ALIPH followed the International Conference on Safeguarding Endangered Cultural Heritage in Conflict Areas which took place in Abu Dhabi last year, under the patronage of UNESCO, and an initiative of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and outgoing French President Francois Hollande. It brought together over 40 countries within the international community affected by heritage loss due to conflict, alongside key players involved in the field of world heritage preservation and concluded with the announcement of the Abu Dhabi declaration.