The World Heritage Convention and the Law of State ResponsibilityPromises and Pitfalls

2020 ◽  
pp. 247-266
Author(s):  
Lucas Lixinski ◽  
Vassilis P Tzevelekos
Keyword(s):  
Management Practice ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Heritage Management ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
Positive Law ◽  
State Involvement ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Different Levels

Under many UNESCO instruments there is a disconnect between the language of the treaties and the mechanics of the positive law, on the one hand, and the actuality of international heritage management practice, on the other. Specifically, existing primary norms often do not set sufficiently clear legal obligations. This chapter explores this mismatch with a focus on (concurrent) State responsibility in the context of the World Heritage program. It focuses specifically on two different levels of State involvement in heritage protection: (1) multinational heritage nominations and (2) heritage that is listed by only one State, but that is also of interest to another State. The 1972 World Heritage Convention places heritage squarely within the territorial State’s sovereignty, even if it does recognize that States have a duty to cooperate in the protection of world heritage in other States as well. The duty of cooperation is seen as eroding State sovereignty, but critics also highlight that in fact there is too much sovereign control over those allegedly sovereignty-eroding dimensions of World Heritage processes.

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.

scholarly journals Resilience and transformation of heritage sites to accommodate for loss and learning in a changing climate

2020 ◽  
Vol 162 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-55
Author(s):  
Erin Seekamp ◽  
Eugene Jo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Heritage Management ◽  
International Level ◽  
World Heritage Sites ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
The World ◽  
Climatic Impacts ◽  
Heritage Policy

Abstract The predicted increases in climate change vulnerability of heritage sites are alarming. Yet, heritage management focuses on enabling a steady state of heritage sites to ensure the continuity of values embedded within those properties. In this paper, we use the concept of resilience to demonstrate how expanding the heritage paradigm from solely a preservation perspective to one that also embraces a transformation perspective can accommodate for loss as well as promote learning. We argue that adaptation as currently conceptualized in the heritage field is limited, as it is not economically or ecologically feasible for all heritage sites or properties. When heritage properties are severely impacted by climatic events, we suggest that some remain damaged to serve as a memory of that event and the inherent vulnerabilities embedded in places. Moreover, when confronted with projected climatic impacts that exceed a financially viable threshold or ecological reality, or when rights holders or associated communities deem persistent adaptation unacceptable, we argue for transformation. We claim that transformation enables a reorganization of values focused on the discovery of future values embedded within changing associations and benefits. Therefore, we recommend that the heritage field adopts an alternative heritage policy that enables transformative continuity through applications of persistent and autonomous or anticipatory adaptation. We conclude by suggesting a pathway for such change at the international level; specifically, we call for the World Heritage Convention to develop a new grouping of sites, World Heritage Sites in Climatic Transformation.

scholarly journals THE OUTSTANDING UNIVERSAL VALUE OF THE HISTORIC COLONIAL CENTRE OF THE CITY OF GRACIAS (HONDURAS)

2020 ◽  
Vol XLIV-M-1-2020 ◽  
pp. 565-572
Author(s):  
M. J. Viñals ◽  
L. Teruel ◽  
P. Alonso-Monasterio
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Heritage Management ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
Comparison Results ◽  
The World ◽  
Outstanding Universal Value ◽  
The City

Abstract. This paper analyses the outstanding universal values, integrity, and authenticity of the city of Gracias (Honduras), as well as its protection and heritage management tools. The main objective is to demonstrate that Gracias meets the UNESCO requirements to qualify as a candidate for inclusion in the International List of the World Heritage Convention (1971). Gracias is a colonial Spanish city, founded in 1536, in the region of Lempira. It had great productive, strategic and administrative importance in Central America, demonstrated in part by its hosting of the ‘Audiencia de los Confines’. The ‘Audiencia’ was the highest court of the Spanish Crown with jurisdiction over the current republics of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the region of Chiapas. The aim of this court was to represent the interests of the indigenous people in these areas. An on-site analysis, diagnosis and assessment of the heritage elements was carried out from architectural, urban planning, historical, and intangible heritage perspectives. Additionally, other similar sites in Central America have been analysed for comparison. Results show that this city meets criterion iv of the World Heritage Convention: ‘an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history’. Furthermore, the city´s heritage assets are well-preserved and most of them remain functional; the indigenous culture is alive; and planning, conservation and managing tools are in use. Currently, Gracias maintains its harmony and life and its respect for the natural environment, creating a cultural landscape that has been maintained for almost 500 years.

scholarly journals Adrian Crăciunescu, Autenticitatea – un factor neabordat de legislaţia internă, dar determinant în evaluarea UNESCO / Authenticity – untackled issue within domestic legislation while being a crucial one in UNESCO’s assessments

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-62
Keyword(s):  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
International Organization ◽  
International Convention ◽  
Built Heritage ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
Domestic Legislation ◽  
The World ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The One

Among the evaluation criteria used by the UNESCO, „authenticity” is among the most important but It is actually almost completely absent in our legislation for built heritage. The most important deficiency in the monument scheduling methodology is ignoring the idea of authenticity, limited only to a relatively vague formula in its 8th article which states that value is influenced by the „the proportion of the component elements resulted from the interventions made after the moment of building”. In this hypothesis, there is a relative contradiction with a thesis of the restoration doctrine, namely the one stating that all stages of a monument are relevant so that they can only be eliminated only in specific situations highlighted by the Venice Charter. In the operational guidelines of World Heritage Committee, there are a few articles dedicated to authenticity and integrity, which are not actually mentioned in the text of the World Heritage Convention. Ideas associated with the preservation of heritage that are resulting from the recent evolution of doctrinaire texts, such as „compromise” or „management of change”, have led to ideological confrontations even within ICOMOS, the international organization responsible for scientifically and professionally assessing the authenticity and integrity of the heritage covered by the international convention.

The World Heritage Convention in the Arctic and Indigenous People: Time to Reform?

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 226-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Marsden
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
World Heritage List ◽  
The World ◽  
United Nations Declaration ◽  
High Level

This article analyses the role of the World Heritage Convention in the Arctic, particularly the role of Indigenous people in environmental protection and governance of natural, mixed and transboundary properties. It outlines the Convention in an Arctic context, profiles Arctic properties on the World Heritage List and Tentative List, and considers Arctic properties that may appear on the List of World Heritage in Danger. It gives detailed consideration to examples of Arctic natural, mixed, and potentially transboundary, properties of greatest significance to Indigenous people with reference to their environmental protection and management. In doing so, it reviews and analyses recent high-level critiques of the application of the Convention in the Arctic. Conclusions follow, the most significant of which is that the Convention and its Operational Guidelines must be reformed to be consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

scholarly journals Geological World Heritage: a revised global framework for the application of criterion (viii) of the World Heritage Convention

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.J. Mc Keever ◽  
G.M. Narbonne
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Present Report ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
Geomorphological Heritage ◽  
World Heritage List ◽  
The World ◽  
Thematic Approach ◽  
Potential Impact

In 2005, IUCN published a report entitled Geological World Heritage: A Global Framework (Dingwall et al., 2005). The aim of that report was to discuss and advise on the role of the World Heritage Convention in recognising and protecting geological and geomorphological heritage. The aim of the present report is to fully revise and update the 2005 report and to look at the potential impact of the new UNESCO Global Geopark designation on future inscriptions to the World Heritage List under criterion (viii). This aim has been achieved through a thorough review of the 2005 report, and in particular the thematic approach to geology that the report used. This has led to the proposal of a rationalised set of 11 themes to guide the application of criterion (viii). This report also examines the processes of comparative analysis and questions of site integrity in relation to properties listed for geological and geomorphological values.

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