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A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, scientific or other form of significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity". To be selected, a World Heritage Site must be a somehow unique landmark which is geographically and historically identifiable and has special cultural or physical significance. For example, World Heritage Sites might be ancient ruins or historical structures, buildings, cities, deserts, forests, islands, lakes, monuments, mountains, or wilderness areas. A World Heritage Site may signify a remarkable accomplishment of humanity, and serve as evidence of our intellectual history on the planet, or it might be a place of great natural beauty. As of June 2020, a total of 1,121 World Heritage Sites exist across 167 countries. With 55 selected areas, China and Italy are the countries with the most sites on the list.
The International Council on Monuments and Sites is a professional association that works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places around the world. Now headquartered in Charenton-le-Pont, ICOMOS was founded in 1965 in Warsaw as a result of the Venice Charter of 1964, and offers advice to UNESCO on World Heritage Sites.
The Copenhagen criteria are the rules that define whether a country is eligible to join the European Union. The criteria require that a state has the institutions to preserve democratic governance and human rights, has a functioning market economy, and accepts the obligations and intent of the EU.
Historic preservation (US), heritage preservation or heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philosophical concept that became popular in the twentieth century, which maintains that cities as products of centuries’ development should be obligated to protect their patrimonial legacy. The term refers specifically to the preservation of the built environment, and not to preservation of, for example, primeval forests or wilderness.
The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict is the first international treaty that focuses exclusively on the protection of cultural property in armed conflict. It was signed at The Hague, Netherlands, on 14 May 1954 and entered into force on 7 August 1956. As of September 2018, it has been ratified by 133 states.
Cultural heritage is the legacy of cultural resources and intangible attributes of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all legacies of past generations are "heritage", rather heritage is a product of selection by society.
The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions is a binding international legal instrument and UNESCO convention adopted by the UNESCO General Conference on 20 October 2005, during the 33rd session of the UNESCO General Conference held in Paris, France, on 3–21 October 2005. The convention complements the previously established provisions of UNESCO including the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity of 2001. "The Convention recognises the rights of Parties to take measures to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions, and impose obligations at both domestic and international levels on Parties." The Convention is available in six authoritative texts: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
The Valletta Treaty is a multilateral treaty of the Council of Europe. The 1992 treaty aims to protect the European archaeological heritage "as a source of European collective memory and as an instrument for historical and scientific study". All remains and objects and any other traces of humankind from past times are considered to be elements of the archaeological heritage. The archaeological heritage shall include structures, constructions, groups of buildings, developed sites, moveable objects, monuments of other kinds as well as their context, whether situated on land or under water."
The Venice Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites is a set of guidelines, drawn up in 1964 by a group of conservation professionals in Venice, that provides an international framework for the conservation and restoration of historic buildings. However, the document is now seen as outdated, representing Modernist views opposed to reconstruction. Reconstruction is now cautiously accepted by UNESCO in exceptional circumstances if it seeks to reflect a pattern of use or cultural practice that sustains cultural value, and is based on complete documentation without reliance on conjecture. The change in attitude can be marked by the reconstruction in 2015 of the Sufi mausoleums at the Timbuktu World Heritage Site in Mali after their destruction in 2012.
The Blue Shield, formerly the International Committee of the Blue Shield, is an international organization founded in 1996 to protect the world's cultural heritage from threats such as armed conflict and natural disasters. Originally intended as the "cultural equivalent of the Red Cross, its name derives from the blue shield symbol used to signify cultural sites protected by the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflict.
The Burra Charter defines the basic principles and procedures to be followed in the conservation of Australian heritage places.
The Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage is a treaty that was adopted on 2 November 2001 by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The convention is intended to protect "all traces of human existence having a cultural, historical or archaeological character" which have been under water for over 100 years. This extends to the protection of shipwrecks, sunken cities, prehistoric art work, treasures that may be looted, sacrificial and burial sites, and old ports that cover the oceans' floors. The preservation of underwater cultural heritage is significant as it allows for the retelling of numerous historical events. As part of its duty to conduct scientific research and provide continuous education on the importance of underwater cultural heritage, UNESCO strives to maintain these sites for the enjoyment of current and future generations. The convention may provide a customary framework to help raise awareness and seek to combat the illegal looting and pirating occurring in waters worldwide. As an international body, member states of the convention agree to work towards the preservation of sunken cultural property within their jurisdiction and the high seas.
The Barcelona Charter, in full the European Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Traditional Ships in Operation is an informal but widely accepted standard for maintenance and restoration projects on historic watercraft that are still in operation as active sailing vessels.
Cultural property are physical items that are part of the cultural heritage of a group or society. They include such items as historic buildings, works of art, archaeological sites, libraries and museums.
The values embodied in cultural heritage are identified in order to assess significance, prioritize resources, and inform conservation decision-making. It is recognised that values may compete and change over time, and that heritage may have different meanings for different stakeholders.
The Swiss Agency for the Protection of Cultural Property defines measures to protect cultural property against damage, destruction, theft and loss. For this purpose, a legal basis has been established at the national level and international agreements have been made that oblige Switzerland to respect and support the protection of cultural property not only on its own territory but also on the sovereign territory of other state parties.
The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage is a UNESCO treaty adopted by the UNESCO General Conference on 17 October 2003.
The Nara Document on Authenticity is a document that addresses the need for a broader understanding of cultural diversity and cultural heritage in relation to conservation in order to evaluate the value and authenticity of cultural property more objectively. It was drafted by 45 representatives from 28 countries after their deliberation on the definition and assessment of authenticity during the Nara Conference held in Nara in November 1994.
The Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention are a series of instructions to signatory nations regarding the proper implementation of the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The guidelines were adopted by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee at its first session and amended at its second session in 1978.
The Classification of Built Heritage in Portugal corresponds to a group or independent Portuguese archeological civic, military and religious cultural properties deemed to be of sufficient historical value by the Direção-Geral do Património Cultural for protection and conservation. The precise rules for the classification and protection of cultural properties are defined in a heritage registry, that includes inventories of the natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable properties of a cultural, esthetic, social, technical and scientific nature.
References
- ↑ Venice Charter http://www.icomos.org/venicecharter2004/index.html ICOMOS
- ↑ Treaty Office