scholarly journals Roadmap for the Nomination of Reconstructed Cultural Properties for Inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List

Heritage ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roha Khalaf

Guidance on reconstruction is being prepared to implement recent decisions of the World Heritage (WH) Committee. Special attention is given to reconstruction post-inscription within the framework of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of destroyed cultural WH properties. However, guidance must also cover reconstruction pre-inscription because destroyed properties on the Tentative Lists of States Parties may be reconstructed and nominated for inscription on the WH List in the future. This article shifts the attention towards the latter. It revisits the pillars of OUV and elucidates the relation between key concepts to develop a roadmap for new nominations in line with the WH Convention and the growing understanding of heritage as dynamic process in scholarly literature. It explains that States Parties must provide a statement of cultural significance (SCS) to meet the qualifying condition of continuity, and a heritage impact report (HIR) to meet the qualifying conditions of compatibility and distinction. Cultural criteria (i)–(vi) form a reminder list rather than a selection list in the roadmap. The SCS and HIR are, instead, the criteria on the basis of which reconstructed cultural properties may be inscribed. Moreover, authenticity and integrity are rendered redundant by the three qualifying conditions. As a result, this article makes a timely, original, academic and operational contribution to the ongoing preparation of guidance at the international level.

Author(s):  
Strecker Amy

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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-184

Today, limes is an en vogue term in Romania. Scientific research, heritage protection and, more recently, politic discourse – they all deal, directly or indirectly, with issues regarding the Frontiers of the Roman Empire in today’s Romania. In the context of nominating the Frontiers of the Roman Empire as a serial site of UNESCO World Heritage, each of the previously mentioned domains has its responsibilities towards the monument itself. In this study I focus on explaining the different understandings of the term limes. Next, I found it rather important and well-timed to discuss the main tasks and obligations of archaeological research, of the industry of tourism and of archaeological heritage protection in Romania throughout the entire process of nominating and inscribing the Limes on the UNESCO List, as well as after this process is long over.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-396
Author(s):  
Tamar Meladze ◽  
Yasufumi Uekita

AbstractThis article unfolds around the controversial case of Georgia’s eleventh-century Bagrati Cathedral, which represents the only site to be removed from the World Heritage List as a result of its full-scale reconstruction. After its destruction in armed conflict by the end of the seventeenth century, the first conservation-restoration works on the monument were carried out in the 1950s. In 1994, partially reconstructed but still without a roof, Bagrati Cathedral had no issues in meeting the conditions of authenticity when the nomination was made for inscription in the World Heritage List. The conflict arose further when the conservation experts did not endorse the state party’s intention to fully rebuild the cathedral, notwithstanding the fact it was stated to be crucial for its functional continuity. The International Council on Monuments and Sites and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization took the view that this scale intervention would compromise the cathedral’s outstanding universal value and authenticity. This article offers a closer look at the decision-making process, from the nomination to the delisting of Bagrati Cathedral, and analyzes the factors contributing to the conflicting interpretations of the monument’s fundamental values among stakeholders. It addresses the issues from a broader perspective to include the historical-cultural background of Georgia and local approaches to preserving the religious sites, which tend to be overlooked in the discourse.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-77

Since 1972, UNESCO has established a frame of protection for cultural and natural heritage (Convention concerning the protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage) and the “World Heritage List”, which it considers as having an outstanding universal value. In 1994, at the Nara Conference, the Document of Authenticity was adopted, stating that ”the protection and enhancement of cultural and heritage diversity in our world should be actively promoted as an essential aspect of human development”. Since 1997, States Parties have to provide regular reports on the implementation of the World Heritage Convention and the conservation status of each site listed on the World Heritage List. So far, two periodic reports have been made (2000-2006 and 2008-2015), and the third was recently launched (2017-2022).


2017 ◽  
pp. 21-30
Author(s):  
Andrzej Michałowski

The central organisation around which Polish cooperation with UNESCO on implementing the World Heritage Convention has been concentrated from the beginning is the Polish National Committee ICOMOS.The cooperation has been organised by institutions and people connected in some way with the Committee. Specialised institutions were gradually joining the cooperation. One example of such measures was the appointment of the Board of Historical Gardens and Palaces Conservation, transformed subsequently into the Centre for the Protection of Historic Landscape in Warsaw. A „garden” conservation society has gathered around this institution, composed of art historians, landscape architects, architects and gardeners. They have been carrying out interdisciplinary works concerning historic gardens and cultural landscapes in Poland. Their cooperation with the Polish National Committee ICOMOS andthe International Committee of Historic Gardens and Sites ICOMOS – IFLA was connected with the activities of UNESCO. Major activities of the Centre include: valuation and assessment of cultural landscapes for the World Heritage List; drawing up, in collaboration with the Fürst-Pückler-Park Bad Muskau Foundation, an application for the inscription of Park Muskau in the UNESCO World Heritage List; organisation of international conference: „The Regional Expert Meeting on Cultural Landscapes in Eastern Europe” in Białystok in 1999 at the request of WHC UNESCO; organisation of international conference „Cemetery Art” in 1993 at the request of WHC UNESCO, along with accompanying exhibitions concerning specific issues, organised by the Board of Historical Gardens and Palaces Conservation in Warsaw.


Author(s):  
Barry Louis Stiefel

Purpose Having more than 1,000 sites on the World Heritage List raises questions regarding what world heritage means. The re-evaluation of heritage sites within the USA will be conducted as a case study, where similar issues of historical designation has taken place. Within recent decades there has emerged a policy of revisiting designations that occurred prior to 1990, when the nomination process was less rigorous. These re-evaluations do not necessarily remove the property from heritage designation, but the process has been valuable from a qualitative standpoint because a better understanding of significance has been achieved. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach Within recent decades there has emerged a policy of revisiting designations that occurred prior to 1990 in the USA, when the nomination process was less rigorous. Should a similar approach or policy be made to the properties placed on the World Heritage List during the first decades, since the expectations for demonstrating outstanding universal value have since increased? The result could be that we end up with a more robust World Heritage List that provides a better definition of what the common heritage of humanity is. Findings The way we approach and conceptualize World Heritage needs to evolve accordingly, considering how much it has evolved since the Convention in 1972. The experiences of re-evaluating historic places in the USA since the 1990s has much to offer. Research limitations/implications Only the perspective of the USA is given, as a case study. Contributions from practitioners in other countries experienced in heritage site re-evaluation best practices would be meaningful. Practical implications Re-evaluating World Heritage Sites is something to consider as a management prospect for places on or under consideration for the World Heritage List since it could bring a more comprehensive understanding of outstanding universal value. This type of re-evaluation may help in addressing the meaning of place(s), contextualization of multiple locations of common heritage, and the political elitism of the World Heritage List, where some countries are over represented due to sites listed through a less-experienced process from earlier decades. Social implications Revisiting the World Heritage List in respect to policy and the meaning of world heritage may be in order. For example, should every nation be entitled to list at least one property to the list regardless of its heritage value? Originality/value Since the 1970s, coinciding with the establishment of the World Heritage List through the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the USA has dealt with dynamic and complex logistical problems regarding the recognition and interpretation of its cultural heritage.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S260) ◽  
pp. 494-496
Author(s):  
Anna P. Sidorenko

AbstractProperties with a relationship to science are amongst the least represented on the UNESCO World Heritage List and the values of these properties, located in all the regions of the world, are not sufficiently recognised. The UNESCO and IAU encourage the States Parties to the World Heritage Convention to actively participate in the development and implementation of the Thematic Initiative “Astronomy and World Heritage” aiming to provide an opportunity to identify the properties connected with astronomy and for keeping their memory alive and preserving them from progressive deterioration, through the inscription of the most representative properties on the World Heritage List.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 328-342
Author(s):  
R. M. Valeev ◽  
R. R. Khairutdinov ◽  
A. G. Sitdikov ◽  
R. R. Valeeva-Khakimova

Since 2003, UNESCO has been actively promoting an initiative to include monuments related to astronomical heritage in the World Heritage List. One of the potential objects within the framework of this initiative could be observatories of Kazan University – the historical building of the observatory of Kazan Imperial University of the 19th century and the complex of the country observatory named after V.P. Engelhardt (1901). The article provides a detailed description of these objects, the justification of their outstanding universal value, considers possible criteria of value within the framework of UNESCO nomination rules, as well as the authenticity and integrity of the astronomical objects nominated.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierpaolo De Giosa

Chapter 3 focuses on the inscription process that brought Melaka onto the World Heritage List in 2008. By employing a long-term perspective, the account begins with the first attempts to nominate Melaka in the late 1980s. It took two decades to obtain World Heritage status. The main obstacle was not only related to Melaka’s worthiness, but the supposed lack of protective commitment shown by national authorities, together with policies that did not follow UNESCO-derived standards and guidelines. World Heritage inscriptions are not linear processes, but the result of convergences and shared understandings between international, national, and local actors. Similarly, the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) that justifies inscriptions is not inherent to the site, but constructed along the way.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 18-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Олег Афанасьев ◽  
Oleg Afanasiev

The article discusses the concept of “agrоcultural (agricultural) heritage” and composing it objects in rural (agricultural) tourism, for which they are the most important destinations. This research object is interdisciplinary, affecting a variety of spheres, particularly, agroourism, sightseeing, services and so forth, and economy in general. Agricultural heritage includes tangible objects of agricultural and technical culture, created for the production. Such objects are saved for better and complete study and understanding of their nature, not for contemplation; they are not works of art. This heritage is anthropogenic and technological. From the scientific and methodological point of view the very understanding of the term of "agricultural heritage" is still quite uncertain. The article presents a comprehensive understanding of it based on the nature-use concept as a binary object system "Man - Nature". The available experience of classification of agricultural heritage objects is considered. Starting 2002, at the initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) the criteria are developed and an inventory of objects of the world agro- cultural heritage, Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), is conducted. One of the GIAHS goals is identifying objects of agricultural heritage that are most corresponding to the status of "global agricultural heritage" and their promotion for including to the UNESCO World Heritage List. The article presents for the first time ever full GIAHS list in Russian as of October, 2016. We have separated in special list 114 objects from 58 countries, corresponding in our view to the concept of "agricultural heritage" from the UNESCO World Heritage List current at the end of 2016. The article presets the attempt to classify them by 12 categories. The rating of countries in the world by the number of Agricultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites is submitted. The author notes that exactly this category of objects forms a primary resource base for the agricultural (rural) tourism development as the most important attractive destinations, especially in Europe. As the conclusions the reasons are formulated, under which agricultural tourism is a promising form of tourism organization both for individual agricultural enterprises on the basis of objects of agricultural heritage, and for the regions in which these objects are presented.


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