WORLD HERITAGE CONVENTION

The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (the World Heritage Convention) was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1972. To date, more than 170 countries have adhered to the Convention.

The Convention aims to encourage the identification, protection, and preservation of earth’s cultural and natural heritage. It recognizes that nature and culture are complementary and that cultural identity is strongly related to the natural environment in which it develops.

The Convention provides for the protection of those cultural and natural 'properties' deemed to be of greatest value to humanity. It is not intended to protect all properties of great interest, importance or value, but rather a select list of the most outstanding of these from an international viewpoint.

Cultural heritage refers to monuments, groups of buildings, and sites with historical, aesthetic, archaeological, scientific, ethnological, or anthropological value. Natural heritage covers outstanding physical, biological and geological formations, habitats of threatened species and areas with scientific, conservation or aesthetic value. The level of biodiversity within a given site is a key indicator of its importance as a natural property.

There are currently 754 properties on the World Heritage List. Of these, 582 are cultural properties and 149 natural properties, as well as 23 mixed natural and cultural properties, and 23 cultural landscapes, located in 128 countries.

These World Heritage Sites are nominated by signatory states themselves. The decision to inscribe them on the World Heritage List is made on the basis of independent evaluations made by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and IUCN - The World Conservation Union.

The Convention recognizes that nations have a duty to ensure the identification, protection, conservation, presentation, and transmission to future generations of their cultural and natural heritage. By adhering to the Convention, nations pledge to conserve not only the World Heritage Site(s) situated within their territories, but also to improve the protection of their national heritage as a whole.

The Convention also recognizes that the protection of earth’s cultural and natural heritage is an international responsibility. While the sovereignty of individual signatory nations is respected, part of the function of the WHC is to spread the burden of responsibility for our shared inheritance.

 

Online resources:

Homepage of the World Heritage Convention
Hosted by UNESCO

http://whc.unesco.org/nwhc/pages/doc/mainf3.htm
Lists the 754 properties that the World Heritage Committee has inscribed on the World Heritage List.

 

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