UNITED NATIONS, June 20: The world’s first feature-length film, the family archives of the Swedish industrialist and philanthropist Alfred Nobel and the proceedings of the trials of South African anti-apartheid figures such as Nelson Mandela are among 38 items of documentary heritage that have just been added to a United Nations register to help preserve them for posterity.

According to a press release the items have been included in the Memory of the World Register set up by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organisation (Unesco), bringing to 158 the total number of inscriptions on the register so far. Unesco Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura announced on Tuesday that he had approved the latest inscriptions, which were recommended by the International Advisory Committee of the Memory of the World Programme during a meeting last week in South Africa.

The programme, launched in 1992 to preserve and promote documentary heritage of global significance, much of which is endangered, helps networks of experts to exchange information and raise resources for preservation of, and access to, documentary material.