Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ambassador, thank you for joining us.
I must say that I really appreciate you speaking French. There is currently a lot of talk about protecting the two official languages of Canada, where French is under threat, and I see that our representative to UNESCO speaks French very well. Hearing you speak French moved me deeply, and I thank you very much for that.
I would like to put a general question to you.
Ukraine is currently at war and, last week, we heard from a representative of the International Criminal Court and discussed war crimes and human rights violations. We also heard from the honorary consul of Ukraine in Montreal.
This is a deadly conflict, and we don't know how many deaths have been caused by the conflict so far. The news is mostly focused on the protection of people and the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, among other places.
When it comes to wars in places other than Ukraine, how is UNESCO protecting the cultural and religious heritage or any other form of heritage? Generally speaking, what does UNESCO do to protect heritage?