The mausoleums of Timbuktu were brought down with pickaxes in 2012, before the eyes of the residents who had kept them up from father to son. The town had guarded those tombs of raw earth for centuries, and that memory was what the pickaxes were aimed at. President Macky Sall counts the protection of cultural heritage among the duties of collective security, and he makes it one of the commitments of his candidacy for the office of UN Secretary-General.

A target of war. The destruction of monuments has become a weapon in its own right. Erasing a place of worship or an ancient manuscript aims to sever a community's bond with its past and to make return impossible. International tribunals have recognised these destructions as war crimes.

The 1954 and 1972 conventions. The 1954 Hague Convention protects cultural property in the event of armed conflict, and the 1972 convention created the World Heritage List. Their observance depends on the will of belligerents and the vigilance of those who watch over them.

Rebuilding after destruction. Raising a destroyed monument again returns to a population a part of itself and gives common ground to communities that war has divided. In Timbuktu, the town's own masons rebuilt the mausoleums with the earth and the gestures their elders had passed on to them.

Heritage in peace mandates. Guarding the sites falls to states and to the peacekeepers deployed around them. From New York, the Secretary-General supports the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and proposes to the Security Council peace mandates that include the protection of heritage. He also demands of the parties to a conflict that they spare what peoples have built over the centuries. President Macky Sall will ask that every peace mission count, among its written tasks, the watch over the listed sites in its area.

A head of state's experience in the service of heritage. To have that task written into the mandates, President Macky Sall draws on twelve years as head of state and on the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022. The same experience gave its form to the vision statement filed with the United Nations, whose proposals (development conceived together with peace and security, a renewed multilateralism, a better-governed Organization) are written as obligations.

Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.

The 1954 Hague Convention and the 1972 World Heritage Convention are public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net