Under the patronage of Her Highness Princess Dana Firas, President of the Internationl Council on Monuments and Sites-Jordan, and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and President of the National Society for the Preservation of Petra.
ICOMOS – Jordan held its first discussion session on the Zoom Webinar platform on Wednesday 7/7/2020, entitled “Together to Create Participatory Effective Action to Protect Jordanian Cultural Heritage”

This is part of the Council’s vision of the need to create effective partnerships with governmental and private institutions, and given the specificity of the Jordanian cultural heritage and the challenges, it faces between development projects and heritage preservation projects as well.

Her Highness Princess Dana Firas provided a brief introduction to the Council’s work and the importance of the participation of the network of specialists and researchers provided by the Council around the world. Her Highness also mentioned the cooperation agreements signed by the council since its establishment until now, and that the council seeks to activate the role of youth and provide them with opportunities to participate in the council’s local and international activities.

Dr. Munther Al-Jamhawi, a member of the Board of Directors of ICOMOS-Jordan, interviewed the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Mrs. Majd Shweikeh, and the President of the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority, Dr. Suleiman Al-Farajat. The seminar was also hosted by Dr. Zaki Aslan, Director of the Regional Center of ICROM in Sharjah, Eng. Khaled Al-Khashman, Chairman of The Greater Salt Municipality, and a number of experts and workers in the field, such as Dr. Muawiya Ibrahim / Eng. Rustom Kajian / Mr. Jihad Haroun / Eng. Firas Rabadi / Eng. Bashar Al-Bitar / Mr. Hussam Hijazin / Eng. Tahani Al-Salehi / Dr. Sultan Ma’ani.

There were more than 80 participants who specialized & interested in cultural heritage issues inside and outside Jordan.
The panel discussion dealt with several topics, the most important of which is the role of ICOMOS-Jordan in presenting files for the inclusion of Jordanian heritage sites on the World Heritage List – UNESCO – with Jordanian experiences, and thus Dr. Soliman talked about the most important challenges facing the site of Petra as the first site to be included in the list and praised to the celebration of the city of Petra for the passage of 13 years On choosing Petra as the second site of the new Seven Wonders of the World.

Eng. Khaled Al-Khashman also spoke about his experience in dealing with the file of Al-Salt Heritage City as an urban heritage site and the importance of the presence of ICOMOS-Jordan in facing challenges and solving the most prominent problems that opposed the inclusion of the site.

At the conclusion of the discussion session, Her Highness Princess Dana Firas thanked the participants in the dialogue and thanked those who contributed to the founding of the Council Assembly, and emphasized the importance of local and regional participation in the field of heritage protection and management.