UNESCO's World Heritage regime and its international influence

By Stefania Ferrucci

This book aims to portray the staus quo of the World Heritage regime, to demonstrate its global influence and the world's response to its diverse power mechanisms, and to provide incentives for improvement.

• Language: English
• Publisher: tredition
• Release date: Dec 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9783849183516

Book preview

Stefania Ferrucci

UNESCO’s World Heritage regime

and its international influence

© 2012 Stefania Ferrucci

Umschlagabbildung: Stefania Ferrucci

Verlag: tredition GmbH, Hamburg

ISBN: 978-3-8491-1769-6

Table of contents

Introduction

1. UNESCO’s World Heritage regime and its political mandate

1.1 The 1972 World Heritage Convention: Historical background and evolution

1.2 Cultural, natural heritage and cultural landscapes: A definition

1.3 Nomination criteria and the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV)

2. Political problems and power mechanisms of UNESCO’s World Heritage regime

2.1 The theory of persuasive power

2.2 Constructivism and the World Heritage regime

3. The World Heritage Committee: Its tools and power dynamics

3.1 The World Heritage List: The regime’s primary instrument

3.2 The nomination and inclusion process of properties on the World Heritage List and its hindrances

3.3 The List of World Heritage in Danger, the delisting process and the signatories’ responses

3.3.1 Some illustrative examples: Cologne Cathedral in Germany and the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal

3.4 The World Heritage regime’s socio - cultural tool: Information and education projects for public awareness raising and illustrative examples

3.5 National sovereignty vs. collective interest: A critical dichotomy in the World Heritage regime

4. Benefits for States Parties to become a signatory

4.1 Advantages for States Parties to be well represented on the World Heritage List

4.2 International assistance and World Heritage Fund

4.2.1 Illustrative examples of international assistance: Cambodia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

4.3 Tourism: A double-edged sword for World Heritage

4.3.1 An illustrative example of tourism: The Galapagos Islands

4.4 World Heritage Sustainable Tourist Programme

4.5 Prestige and international recognition: The regime’s socio-cultural benefits

5. Lessons learned and recommendations for the future

5.1 What led to the regime’s success?

5.2 What has impaired the regime’s further success and what can be done better in the future?

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

State aspirations to have national properties recognised as belonging to the heritage of humanity with an international significance have increasingly empowered the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in regard to its influence upon international behaviour. In the early 1970s, UNESCO embarked on an ambitious mission to protect and preserve humanity’s most outstanding heritage to guarantee that it will be passed to future generations. It also aimed to recognise people’s interaction with nature and to ensure a balance between them. Towards this end, UNESCO launched a global World Heritage regime to accomplish its noble mandate. Over the past thirty-nine years this regime has become an international success as it has enabled the safeguarding of numerous tangible and intangible goods of exceptional value for the entirety of humanity. The key to its success has been a balanced combination of measures that highlight the regime’s direct and indirect forms of power. Yet, with a growing number of sites inscribed on the World Heritage List¹ and with growing threats to them, the World Heritage system has found itself increasingly facing difficulties in maintaining its moral power. These challenges have been exacerbated by a lack of coercive force and sanctioning methods in realistic terms, as well as by rising flows of tourism and, at the same time, decreasing international assistance and funds. The ongoing success of the regime thus comes to depend, more than ever, upon the shared involvement and commitment of the States Parties, the international community, and civil society.

This book proposes to examine the multiple ways in which the World Heritage regime has used its power mechanisms to achieve its current significant international position. It will begin with a definition of the UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention, an international treaty to preserve the world cultural and natural and intangible heritage. UNESCO’s World Heritage regime is thus chiefly based on the implementation of the World Heritage Convention and the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention² through the World Heritage Committee (WHC). A brief diachronic view of the Convention’s work and aims are therefore imperative for understanding the regime’s power mechanisms and its dynamics. Also provided will be definitions of cultural and natural heritage as well as cultural landscapes and the adopted criteria for the nomination of world heritage, which are all key aspects and assessment measures of UNESCO’s Heritage regime. After a brief synopsis of the differences between this regime and conventional International Organisations (IOs), this research will shed light on the nature of its persuasive forms of power: scientific objectivity, blacklisting, mimicry, and competition - especially regarding the significance of both the States Parties and the regime’s reputation, as well as its legitimacy. It will discuss how vital these forms of power are to success in influencing states to ratify the World Heritage Convention and to ensure compliance, and in persuading them to jointly achieve the proposed goals. It will be further shown that the regime’s legitimacy is based on the perception of its procedures and favourable outcomes by its Member States. In addition, this research will theorise on the constructivist IR approach by adapting it to the regime. How Member States follow constructed rules and adopt a logic of appropriateness will also be explored. It will also involve examination of its political tools, the World Heritage List, the List of World Heritage in Danger and socio-cultural tools, since they represent the conduit for its power mechanisms, and assess the chances of success in each arena. Examples from Cologne Cathedral in Germany and the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal illustrate how the regime’s tools can be used as a deterrent mechanism to ensure the integrity of World Heritage sites. Moreover, the dichotomy of heritage viewed through the lens of national and international interests will be addressed, as well as what this entails for the States Parties’ sovereignty. International interests may come to the forefront of heritage protection, creating a new form of sovereignty, ‘disaggregated sovereignty’. The World Heritage regime’s various benefits will also be discussed, its impact on the states’ economies especially in regard to tourism, the granting of international assistance as well as funds, and its influence on the States Parties’ social development by igniting a sense of prestige and pride about their World Heritage properties and by convincing entire nations of the necessity to jointly protect and conserve this collective treasure. Examples from Cambodia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo illustrate the effectiveness of international assistance provided by the regime, while the example of the Galapagos Islands underlines the need to develop sustainable tourism practices to prevent the deterioration of heritage sites.

After examining