The ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ Concept of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention: Food for Thought to Preserve Lunar Artifacts

2020 ◽  
pp. 53-64
Author(s):  
Anne-Sophie Martin
Keyword(s):  
World Heritage ◽  
Unesco World Heritage ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
Outstanding Universal Value ◽  
Value Concept

scholarly journals The Implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention: Continuity and Compatibility as Qualifying Conditions of Integrity

Heritage ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 384-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roha W. Khalaf
Keyword(s):  
World Heritage ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
International Exchange ◽  
Unesco World Heritage ◽  
Natural Properties ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
World Heritage List ◽  
Good State ◽  
Outstanding Universal Value ◽  
Heritage Policy

This article explores the nexus between integrity, continuity, and compatibility (compatible change) in the implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Integrity is a measure by which the Advisory Bodies, namely the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), evaluate nominations of cultural and/or natural properties to determine whether they qualify for inscription on the World Heritage List. Yet, its application remains unclear as presently worded in the Operational Guidelines. This article argues that continuity and compatibility should become qualifying conditions of integrity. Together, they can maintain wholeness, maintain intactness, and prevent adverse effects of development and/or neglect (Paragraph 88(a)(b)(c)) to keep properties in a good state of conservation, to sustain their cultural-natural significance including Outstanding Universal Value, and to enable sustainable development. This is an alternative conceptual and operational framework for nomination, evaluation, protection and management that bridges the culture/nature divide. If adopted, the “system of collective protection of the cultural and natural heritage of Outstanding Universal Value” established by the Convention would become more credible, practical, and effective. This article, therefore, contributes to World Heritage policy formulation and to a fruitful international exchange of ideas.

scholarly journals Urban Heritage Streets’ Revitalizing Attributes

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 191-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zalina Samadi ◽  
Rodzyah Mohd Yunus
Keyword(s):  
Publishing House ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Urban Revitalization ◽  
Architectural Heritage ◽  
Unesco World Heritage ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
Outstanding Universal Value ◽  
International Publishing ◽  
Open Access Article

There were 911 sites including 704 cultural, 180 natural, 27 mixed properties which were included  as  outstanding  universal  value  by  the  UNESCO  World  Heritage Convention in June 2010. Malaysian cultural heritage sites, Malacca and Georgetown, were listed since 2007. Since World Heritage Lists is not an ultimate benchmark for heritage street revitalization performance, therefore, this research will provide a set of attributing variables to investigate the revitalization attributes in creating a great heritage streets. The research employed unobtrusive method of content analysis and obtrusive method. This paper will share its findings based on research’s pilot study and document analysis. Keywords urban architectural heritage, urban revitalization, revitalization index eISSN 2514-751X © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.

scholarly journals Authenticity or Continuity in the Implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention? Scrutinizing Statements of Outstanding Universal Value, 1978–2019

Heritage ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roha W. Khalaf
Keyword(s):  
World Heritage ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Unesco World Heritage ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
Natural Properties ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
World Heritage List ◽  
Outstanding Universal Value ◽  
Effective System ◽  
Future Research Directions

Continuity is a key theme in conservation and one that appears in the text of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, which requests States Parties to continue to protect, conserve and present properties situated on their territories (Article 26). Despite this fact, it is not put into effect. Instead, the Operational Guidelines for the implementation of this Convention retain authenticity as a benchmark for assessing cultural heritage. This article scrutinizes Statements of Outstanding Universal Value (SOUV) to prove that continuity is the evidence presented to justify inscription. It reveals that at least 263 properties were inscribed on the World Heritage List not because their values are truthfully and credibly expressed through a variety of attributes as per the Operational Guidelines (Paragraph 82), but because their values and attributes continue to exist. It also reveals that continuity is a recurring concept in other sections of the SOUV, and this holds true for natural properties. Indeed, continuity applies to both cultural and natural heritage, and to tangible and intangible attributes, but this is never admitted in the Operational Guidelines. In terms of future research directions, the article suggests exploring how change within properties affects judgements about authenticity and how guidance on impact assessment can be improved to better achieve the goal of compatible change, concluding that “an effective system of collective protection”, which is the raison-d’être of the Convention, is not one that aims at “conserving the authentic”, but one that aims at “managing continuity and compatible change” in an ever-evolving world.

Part II Substantive Aspects, Ch.12 Landscape as Cultural Heritage

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Strecker Amy
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
International Level ◽  
Unesco World Heritage ◽  
The Public ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The World ◽  
Outstanding Universal Value

This chapter examines the protection of landscape in international cultural heritage law. Since the inclusion of ‘cultural landscapes’ within the scope of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in 1992, landscape has gained increasing importance at the international level. However, given the focus of the World Heritage Convention on landscapes of ‘outstanding universal value’, it was not until the adoption of the European Landscape Convention (ELC) in 2000 that landscape became democratized. The ELC conceives of landscape above all as a people’s landscape and, accordingly, provides for the active participation of the public in the formulation of plans and polices. It focuses not only on outstanding places but also on the everyday and degraded landscapes where most people live and work. This ostensibly brings ‘landscape’ back to its early etymological origins—when it corresponded to a close-up, lived-in perspective—and has a number of implications for human rights and democracy.

The 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Strecker
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Unesco World Heritage ◽  
Spatial Justice ◽  
Landscape Governance ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Conceptual Dependency ◽  
Landscape Protection

Chapter 5 analyses the evolving conception and protection of landscape in the World Heritage Convention. First, it traces the development of landscape protection from its early conceptual dependency on nature, to the incorporation of ‘cultural landscapes’ within the Convention’s scope in 1992. It then discusses the typology of cultural landscapes, issues of representativeness and the implications of the Word Heritage system for landscape protection globally, as well as locally. In this regard, a number of cases are analysed which, on the one hand, support the World Heritage Convention’s instrumental role in landscape governance, but which on the other, highlight the problems involved in ascribing World Heritage status to living landscapes from a spatial justice perspective.

Non-State Actors and the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention in Asia: Achievements, Problems, and Prospects

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 461-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro CHECHI
Keyword(s):  
World Heritage ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Outstanding Universal Value ◽  
State Actors ◽  
The One

AbstractThe philosophy underlying the UNESCO World Heritage Convention of 1972 [WHC] consists in promoting a system of international co-operation in the context of which the States Parties commit to preserving the cultural treasures of “outstanding universal value” located within their territories. However, it is a fact that today many properties inscribed on the List set under the WHC are endangered. This paper will focus on the role played by “non-state actors” in the enforcement of the WHC. It will thus dwell upon the relationships between public and private interests, on the one hand, and between international and domestic legal orders, on the other. Its purpose is to map out and discuss the most salient problems about the involvement of non-state actors—particularly non-governmental organizations [NGOs] and private companies—in the monitoring and implementation of the WHC.

scholarly journals Indigenous Cultural Heritage: Developing New Approaches and Best Practices for World Heritage Based on Indigenous Perspectives and Values

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Diane Archibald
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
First Nations ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
World Heritage Site ◽  
Unesco World Heritage ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
University Of British Columbia ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives

In support of advancing the recognition and inclusion of Indigenous Cultural Heritage in all its diverse forms within the UNESCO World Heritage Convention and World Heritage Site designations, this paper documents and discusses the presentations, Indigenous-led Forum, and recommendations  and outcomes of the International Conference on Indigenous Cultural Heritage organized by the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Theory and Philosophy of Restoration and Conservation in partnership with the First Nations House of Learning, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, in November 2019.

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