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Audiovisual archives tell us stories about people’s lives and cultures from all over the world. They represent a priceless heritage which is an affirmation of our collective memory and a valuable source of knowledge since they reflect the cultural, social and linguistic diversity of our communities. They help us grow and comprehend the world we all share. Conserving this heritage and ensuring it remains accessible to the public and future generations is a vital goal for all memory institutions as well as the public at large. The UNESCO Archives has launched the project « Digitizing our shared UNESCO history » with this very goal in mind.

The World Day for Audiovisual Heritage (WDAH) is a commemoration of the adoption, in 1980 by the 21st General Conference, of the Recommendation for the Safeguarding and Preservation of Moving Images. The World Day provides an occasion to raise general awareness of the need to take urgent measures and to acknowledge the importance of audiovisual documents.

In this way, the World Day also serves as an opportunity for UNESCO’s Member States to evaluate their performance with respect to implementing the 2015 Recommendation Concerning the Preservation of, and Access to, Documentary Heritage, Including in Digital Form.

WDAH’s celebrations in 2022

The 2022 World Day for Audiovisual Heritage will be celebrated in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the Memory of the World Programme. The celebration will take place from 27 October to 5 November 2022, under the theme “Enlisting documentary heritage to promote inclusive, just and peaceful societies”. Taking its cue from the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, documentary heritage, as an information resource, lends itself both to the “public access to information” component of Target of 16.10 of SDG 16 and its “fundamental freedoms” component. With respect to the theme of the celebration, while the question of ensuring universal access to documentary heritage remains a foundational concern, there is a strong focus on how documentary heritage can be used to promote inclusive, just and peaceful societies.

Source: Text: https://www.unesco.org/en/days/audiovisual-heritage     Image: internationaldays.com