The International scientific and public conference «80 years of the Roerich Pact» in the International Centre of the Roerichs (October 8–11, 2015)

On October 8–11, 2015 the non-governmental Museum named after Nicholas Roerich of the International Centre of the Roerichs hosted the International scientific and public conference «80 years of the Roerich Pact» under the patronage of UNESCO. The Conference organizer: the International Centre of the Roerichs. The co-organizers: Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Russian Academy of Cosmonautics named after K.E. Tsiolkovsky, the Institute of History of Science and Technology named after S.I. Vavilov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Philosophical Society, the International Association of Peace Foundations, the International League for Protection of Culture, the International Roerich’s Heritage Preservation Committee, Charitable Foundation named after Helena Roerich.

The Conference was held under the auspices of the UN Information Centre in Moscow.

The main purpose of the Conference was to draw attention of an international community to relevant ideas of the Roerich Pact on the necessity for urgent joining efforts in order to protect the priceless cultural heritage.

The International Centre of the Roerichs (ICR) conducts permanent works on popularization of ideas of the Roerich Pact in the world. The ICR Exhibition project «The Roerich Pact. History and Modernity» was opened in the UNESCO headquarters in Paris in April 2012 and since then the exhibition scale has been expanding.

422 participants from 19 countries took part in the Conference. The representatives of 10 embassies attended the opening of this scientific forum. 78 scholars, including 3 academicians, 10 doctors and 29 candidates of science participated in the conference.

The welcoming speech for the conference participants was spoken by: Mr. Juan Vicente Paredes Torrealba – Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; Ms. Claudia Liliana Zambrano, the Colombia's Chargé d'Affaires in Russian Federation; Mr. Jeysundhar – Secretary (Press, Information and Culture) of Indian Embassy in Russian Federation; The President of «Darjeeling Agni-Yoga» Association Leonardo Olazabal Amaral, the founder and director of the private enlightening Roerich museum in Bilbao, Spain; G. Ordzhonikidze – the Executive Secretary of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO; V. Chereshnev, academician of RAS and RAMS, Chairman of Duma’s Committee for Science and High Technologies; V. Kondrashin– member of the Federation Committee on Science, Education, Culture and Information Policy; L.V. Ivanitskaya – Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Secretary of the Academy of Natural Sciences; V.A. Stavitsky – vice-president of National Pushkin Foundation, member of Commission on State Cultural Policy under the Chairman of the Federation Council; A.A. Migunov – Vice-President of the International Public Movement «Eastern Dimension»; S.V. Avdeed – Pilot-Cosmonaut of the Russian Federation, Hero of the Russian Federation, Knight of the Legion of Honor (France); A.A. Zolotov– Vice-President of Russian Academy of Arts.

Conference participants saw a video message by Oleg Kononenko, Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov – cosmonauts of 45th expedition to the International cosmic station. The ICR movie «The Roerich Pact. History and Modernity» was shown during opening of the conference.

On October 9-10, 2015 the participants of the conference «80 years of the Roerich Pact» presented their scientific reports. The Round table following the results of this large-scale scientific forum took place on October 11. The Resolution reflecting the relevant issues of culture protection was adopted.