The international economic crisis is having a devastating effect on global culture. A Greek initiative set up to make people more aware and urge UNESCO to take measures to combat the threat is the creation of http://greekcultureprotection.com – a web page where people can call for the protection of cultural heritage from financial cutbacks standing in the way of adequate conservation.The site aims to ensure that the culture is protected from further cutbacks in the UN’s development agenda.

Constitutional lawyer, George Kasimatis, provided the impetus for the creation of this initiative when he focused on how the memorandum and privatization have threatened sites of cultural heritage. Austerity measures have slashed the budget of the Ministry of Culture in half over the past three years. As a result, a large number of employees have been dismissed and the authorities are no longer in a position to implement any more projects concerning the effective protection, conservation and presentation of monuments and sites. Research and excavations are being abandoned. Museums are closed or entire halls are shut down due to a shortage of guards.

The privatization and commercialization of public assets dramatically affects cultural heritage and its protection and conservation has been weakened due to the lack of necessary funds.As investment in culture is diminishing, illegal activity related to culture is increasing: Clandestine excavations, pillage and illicit trafficking of cultural property has increased by 25% over the past 3 years.

The Greek initiative is looking to UNESCO for protection because, within the UN system, UNESCO has a unique mandate and expertise to promote culture as a driver and an enabler of peace and sustainable development in conformity to the Millennium Development Goals and the Post-2015 UN Development agenda.

Already many well-known international cultural figures have added their names to the initiative.These include political activists and nobel laureates such as South African writer Nadine Gordimer, Italian writer Dario Fo, German novelist Günter Grass, archaeologist Anthony Snodgrass, Swiss architect Mario Botta, U.S.linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky, Greek director Costa-Gavras and many more.