History IcoFort, the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Fortifications and Military Heritage was established by the ICOMOS Executive Committee in Paris, on the 8th February 2005, but the works on the Committee organization started a few years before. It was in Spain during the 13th General Assembly which was hold in Madrid, 1-5 December 2002. Lidia Klupsz from Poland proposed establishing a new International Scientific Committee on Fortifications at the end of her lecture devoted the fortress landscapes given at the Scientific Symposium "Strategies for the World's Cultural Heritage. Preservation in a globalise world: principles, practices, perspectives". Philippe la Hausse de Lalouvière from Mauritius came to Madrid with the same idea and they together started a campaign to form a new committee.
The idea was supported by many members of ICOMOS and according to the Polish National Committee proposal’s, the resolution nr 23 adopted by the 13th General Assembly of ICOMOS on 5 December 2002 permitted to form the Working Group on Fortifications and Military Heritage (the resolution nr 23 of the 13th General Assembly of ICOMOS was adopted on 5 December 2002, after having been presented to the General Assembly in a session chaired by Mrs. Zeynep Ahunbay, vice-president of the General Assembly, at the request of its President. The resolution had been received by the duly appointed Resolutions Committee and was presented to the Assembly by the Committee's chair, Mrs. Viera Dvorakova, and recorded by its Secretary, Mrs Sarah Jane Brazil. Adoption was by acclamation). The resolution nr 23. Based on a proposal by the Polish National Committee that invited the Executive Committee to consider the possibility of creating an International Scientific Committee on Fortifications and Military Heritage whose protection and conservation are triggered by actual threats, the General Assembly requests the ICOMOS Executive Committee to set up a strategy specifically for the protection of this historic and cultural heritage in a national and international context, and to consider the possibility of setting up a working group, a scientific committee or any other appropriate mechanism. |