Directorate General for Cultural Affairs

The General-Directorate for Cultural Affairs is responsible for protecting, disseminating and promoting the country's cultural heritage abroad as well as cooperation and exchange in cultural, educational and sport matters with other countries. It is integrated by the Directorates of Cultural Policy, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Promotion, Educational and Sports Relations and the Inca Garcilaso Cultural Center.

Main achievements:

1. Registration of the Andean Road System Qhapaq Ñan to the UNESCO World Heritage List

The application file for the Qhapaq Ñan - Andean Road System - was presented to the UNESCO World Heritage Center by the countries involved in the process - Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru - on 1st February, 2013, which resulted in the World Heritage Committee adopting at its 38th Session on 21st June 2014 the decision to inscribe Qhapaq Ñan in the cultural itinerary category on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which includes 780 kilometers and 291 sites.

2. Mantles Paracas currently in possession of the Municipality of Gothenburg

In 2008 the Embassy of Peru in Sweden was informed of the exhibition "The Paracas collection: a stolen world", in the Museum of World Cultures of Gothenburg, containing a hundred Paracas textiles, among other plundered goods to the country between 1931 and 1933 and taken illegally to Sweden. Following the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in coordination with the Ministry of Culture to the Municipality of Gothenburg, the Museum of World Cultures and the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was agreed to return the collection in three stages until 2021, the year of the Bicentennial of the Independence of Peru and the Jubilee for the 400 years of the city of Gothenburg.

3. Signing of a new agreement for the operation of the Regional Center for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Latin America - CRESPIAL

The Regional Center for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Latin America (CRESPIAL), based in Cusco, was created in February 2006 following the signing in Paris of its Constitution Agreement signed between UNESCO and the Government of Peru for promote and support actions to protect the vast intangible cultural heritage of the peoples of Latin America in the spirit of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of 2003. For the establishment of the Center in Peru, which already has 15 Member States - UNESCO's Executive Board authorized its Director General to sign the Agreement that will extend the action of CRESPIAL in Peru until 2020.

4. Traveling exhibitions and Commemoration of the IV Centenary of the death of the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega:

The Cultural Center Inca Garcilaso elaborated the following samples to be exhibited in 25 diplomatic and consular missions of Peru:

• Geography as one of the fine arts. The Geographic Atlas of Peru by Mariano Felipe Paz Soldán (1865).

• "Camina el Autor (Walk the author)" in homage to the indigenous chronicler Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala.

• The Inca Garcilaso and the birth of the mestizo culture of America.

• Memory of Peru. Pictures 1890 - 1950

• Photographic exhibition "Peru Amazon".

Also, the reproduction of busts of the Inca Garcilaso was carried out to be placed in emblematic places of friendly countries and their complete works were published for the fourth centenary of his death, which were sent to our Missions for donation to cultural centers, libraries and universities of the world.

5. Recovery of more than 4000 Cultural Property in Argentina:

In December 2000, the Argentine authorities seized some 18,000 cultural assets from different Latin American countries, including Peru. After a judicial process followed by our country for 14 years, the Court of Cassation of Buenos Aires resolved in June 2014, the immediate delivery to Peru of more than 4,000 thousand Peruvian cultural goods of incalculable value. In December 2015, the goods were repatriated and in June 2016 they were handed over to the Ministry of Culture.

6. NAFSA Educational Conference:

From 29th May to 3rd June, 2016, the International Education Conference "NAFSA 2016" was held in Denver, USA, the most important in the world that brings together 10,000 professionals from across continents. As a result of coordination between the Directorate General for Cultural Affairs, the Consulate General of Peru in Denver, the Ministry of Education, the Peruvian Network for the Internationalization of Higher Education, PROCALIDAD and PROMPERÚ, a Peruvian Official Delegation that included universities that assembled the stand "Study in Peru: Experience what you learn", participated for the first time in the event.