The Role of Multilateral Environmental Agreements in Armed Conflict: ‘Green-keeping’ in Virunga Park. Applying the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in the Armed Conflict of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

2014 ◽  
pp. 179-204
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Environmental Agreements ◽  
Multilateral Environmental Agreements ◽  
Unesco World Heritage ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
Republic Of The Congo

The Role of Multilateral Environmental Agreements in Armed Conflict: ‘Green-keeping’ in Virunga Park. Applying the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in the Armed Conflict of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

2013 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britta Sjöstedt
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Environmental Agreements ◽  
Multilateral Environmental Agreements ◽  
Unesco World Heritage ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
The World ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
The Law

This article analyses the application of the 1972 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Convention (the WHC) in the context of the armed conflicts that have taken place in the Virunga National Park (the Park), a natural world heritage site in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the DRC). Instead of addressing wartime environmental damage under the law of armed conflict, this article seeks to establish how such damage can be addressed using multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). MEAs often consist of general principles and vague obligations and their relevance or applicability during situations of armed conflict may be questioned. However, a number of MEAs, including the WHC, authorise their convention bodies to develop detailed and substantive obligations applicable to their parties. Thus, the decisions and recommendations adopted by the World Heritage Committee, a body established under the WHC, provide substantive content to the provisions of the WHC. These decisions and recommendations may, however, run counter to the requirements of military necessity thereby affecting the application of the law of armed conflict. While the position adopted by the World Heritage Committee does not inevitably imply a clash between the obligations in the WHC and the law of armed conflict, it does raise the question of whether the outstanding values of world heritage should trump the rules of military necessity and other pressing concerns during armed conflict. On an informal basis, the World Heritage Committee and the UN peacekeeping forces deployed in the DRC have agreed to perform operations that jointly address the interconnected concerns of security and conservation of natural resources in the region of the Park. This cooperative ‘green-keeping’ operation represents a useful approach to regime interaction and the harmonisation of obligations set out in different legal regimes that are applicable to the same subject matter.

scholarly journals The Growing Role and Responsibilities of UNESCO in the Field of Preserving Historic and Cultural Heritage

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Aysur Belekova
Keyword(s):  
World Heritage ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Unesco World Heritage ◽  
World Heritage Convention ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Science Diplomacy ◽  
Single Process ◽  
Basic Characteristics ◽  
Historical Truth

UNESCO is the world's largest intergovernmental forum on humanitarian cooperation and offers an alternative way of maintaining bonds among nations. The article examines its growing role and responsibility in the protection and preservation of cultural and historic monuments. The research objective was to determine the role of UNESCO in preserving such monuments, developing measures for their protection, and sustaining historical truth. The research methods included a system-based analysis with its functional and empiric methods. The system-based analysis made it possible to consider interrelated aspects of UNESCO's functioning, approach the matter as a range of problems within a single process, and identify the basic characteristics of UNESCO's policy evolution in the sphere of world heritage conservation. The research also used achievements of political science, diplomacy, history, and international relations. The approach also allowed the author to examine the main tools used by UNESCO, as well as to highlight its current priorities and directions. To analyze the political reality, the author employed such empirical methods as monitoring and study of documents. The author focused on the matters of international cooperation and mutual responsibility of the members the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. The research attempted to identify the most important tasks of Russia in this direction. In the current challenging context, UNESCO has to find a conceptual niche and respond without compromise to any attempts to destroy its basic principles or to politicize its work.

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 Revisiting Konzo Risk Factors in Three Areas Differently Affected by Spastic Paraparesis in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo Discloses a Prominent Role of the Nutritional Status—A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 2628
Author(s):  
Marius Baguma ◽  
Espoir Bwenge Malembaka ◽  
Esto Bahizire ◽  
Germain Zabaday Mudumbi ◽  
Dieudonné Bahati Shamamba ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Nutritional Status ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cyanide Poisoning ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
Republic Of The Congo

This comparative cross-sectional study aimed to better understand the respective contributions of protein malnutrition and cassava-derived cyanide poisoning in the development of konzo. We compared data on nutritional status and cyanide exposure of school-age adolescent konzo-diseased patients to those of non-konzo subjects of similar age from three areas in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Our results show that konzo patients had a high prevalence of both wasting (54.5%) and stunting (72.7%), as well as of cyanide poisoning (81.8%). Controls from Burhinyi and those from Idjwi showed a similar profile with a low prevalence of wasting (3.3% and 6.5%, respectively) and intermediate prevalence of stunting (26.7% and 23.9%, respectively). They both had a high prevalence of cyanide poisoning (50.0% and 63.0%, respectively), similar to konzo-patients. On the other hand, controls from Bukavu showed the lowest prevalence of both risk factors, namely chronic malnutrition (12.1%) and cyanide poisoning (27.6%). In conclusion, cassava-derived cyanide poisoning does not necessarily coexist with konzo outbreaks. The only factor differentiating konzo patients from healthy individuals exposed to cyanide poisoning appeared to be their worse nutritional status. This further suggests that, besides the known role of cyanide poisoning in the pathogenesis of konzo, malnutrition may be a key factor for the disease occurrence.

scholarly journals The Role of Local Communities and Well-Being in UNESCO World Heritage Site Conservation: An Analysis of the Operational Guidelines, 1994–2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7144
Author(s):  
Hanbyeol Jang ◽  
Jeremy Mennis
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
World Heritage Site ◽  
Heritage Conservation ◽  
Systemic Review ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Unesco World Heritage

UNESCO’s world heritage program aims to protect sites of cultural and natural heritage worldwide. Issues of local communities and well-being have been given increasing attention by heritage conservation scholars, but a systemic review of UNESCO guidelines has not been performed. Here, we examine the evolution of the ‘Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention’, documents representing the heritage conservation policies of UNESCO over the period 1994–2019. Using keyword analysis and document analysis, the findings show evidence of an increasing emphasis on local communities, growing primarily since 2005. However, the theme of well-being only first emerged in the operational guidelines in 2019. Political, economic, and environmental challenges idiosyncratic to specific places often complicate the role of local communities and well-being in heritage conservation priorities. Future research should investigate the potential implementation and implications of these changes for the guidelines at specific UNESCO world heritage sites.

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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