| Abstract |
This project will evaluate the implementation of the 1972 UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (the Convention) in ten countries (Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Spain, the UK and the USA). It will assess its impact on national laws and its effectiveness in protecting World Heritage Sites; promoting effective custodianship of those Sites for the benefit of future generations by developing a set of minimum legal standards and policies, which should become a crucial reference point for local authorities, governments and stakeholders. The Convention recognises that States have a duty to protect their cultural heritage with the dual aim to care for the past of humankind and improve the wellbeing of local communities. There are 704 Cultural World Heritage Sites, most of them in developed countries. These are under different man-made threats such as pressure to build modern infrastructure, urban development, privatisation, unsustainable tourism, poor management or inadequate administrative/legislative provisions. For example the Dresden Valley (Germany) Cultural World Heritage Site was delisted in 2009 because of the construction of a four-lane bridge that spoiled its Outstanding Universal Value. The World Heritage Committee recently found that most current management systems and protection arrangements in Western Europe need improvement and highlighted a need to give full information on legislation and other aspects of protection in the different countries party to the Convention (World Heritage Report 20,61;62). The research will address these problems by evaluating the efficiency of national laws in the protection of World Heritage Sites through a critical comparison of ten legal systems and two questions that will cross disciplines and allow for a detailed and sustained engagement with a historical and cultural perspective. It will provide an analysis of the legal discourse of the Convention at both international and national level in order to understand the difficulty of developing a coherent definition of sites of Outstanding Universal Value. Secondly, it will offer a critical evaluation of national legal instruments and policies that protect those sites in order to shape perspectives for their future management and to enhance their stewardship through long term strategic planning. This will be achieved through an assessment of the indeterminate criteria of 'appropriateness' found in Art. 5 of the Convention; an evaluation of national legal, administrative and financial measures necessary for the protection, conservation and rehabilitation of those Sites; it will look at the different regimes of ownership and finally it will examine the level of integrated management policy between the different level of authorities. The findings from this project will enhance the stewardship of World Heritage Sites for the benefit of future generations and local communities by providing a clear understanding of the values behind cultural heritage laws and by developing long term legal/policy strategic planning for local authorities, governments and international agencies whether public, private or voluntary (local authorities, Department of Culture, Media and Sport, English Heritage, National Trust). The project will include a workshop, a conference, and the creation of a network on the protection of the cultural heritage between international leading scholars and relevant stakeholders, which will long outlast the duration of the funding requested here. The results will be published in a book and findings will be disseminated amongst policy makers in the relevant countries through a policy document. Dissemination will also be facilitated through The Heritage Innovation Network at Kent (THINK) at the University of Kent which will organise events with local schools and museums promoting the protection of cultural heritage. |
