The World Heritage Convention

In November 1972 the Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Convention, best known as the World Heritage Convention was ratified.

• How was the Convention made?

  The historical case of the Abu Simbel Temple in Egypt. In the 1950s, the decision to build the Aswan dam in Egypt raised international concern because it would have caused the flood of the valley where the temples of Abu Simbel, a treasure of ancient Egyptian civilization, stood. In 1959, after an appeal to the governments of Egypt and Sudan, UNESCO launched an international-level protection campaign. Archaeological research in areas that would have been flooded accelerated, but above all, the temples of Abu Simbel and Philae were dismantled, transported on dry land and reassembled, completing the greatest heritage protection international action of all time to save a priceless piece of archaeological heritage. This showed the importance of solidarity among nations and the benefits of sharing responsibility for the preservation of exceptional cultural sites. With the help of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) – a prestigious non-governmental organization that consists of an international network of experts including architects, historians, archaeologists, art historians, geographers, anthropologists, engineers and urban planners participating in scientific committees to contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage in the world – UNESCO started preparing a project of a Convention on the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of the World. The World Heritage Convention was ratified in Paris on November 16, 1972.; It was the first official international legal document that combined the concepts of protection of nature and preservation of cultural heritage and recognized them as necessary and fundamental elements for the development of societies around the world and for the maintenance of peace and solidarity. The Convention regards knowledge as a tool for preventing tragedies, an incentive to exchanges between people and nations.

• The Convention’s aims and programmatic intentions

  The core goal of the 1972 Convention is the safeguarding of the World Heritage to ensure that it can be transmitted to future generations. The cultural and natural heritage is subject to spontaneous degradation (weather or climate related, or caused by passage of time), natural degradation (environmental pollution, biological attacks, geological and hydro-geological agents) or alteration or destruction directly caused by man. The degradation or disappearance of a World Heritage property means the loss of an Exceptional (and therefore unique) and Universal (meaning important for all peoples in the world) testimony. The Convention defines the types of natural or cultural sites that may be included in the World Heritage List and the duties of States Parties in identifying potential sites as well as their role in protecting and safeguarding the Sites. It also outlines the use and management rules of the World Heritage Fund and the terms and conditions of international financial assistance. The countries that sign the Convention, called States Parties or Member States, undertake to protect the cultural and natural heritage in their territory, paying special attention to the properties included in the World Heritage List as the loss of those would cause irreparable damage to humanity. The Convention pays particular attention to the issues related to education and information, since only by consolidating respect and devotion of people and nations to cultural and natural heritage we can guarantee the preservation of our heritage.

• The bodies of the Convention

  I. World Heritage Committee The World Heritage Committee is an intergovernmental body pursuing the purposes of the Convention and formed by the delegates of the Member States.
  II. World Heritage Centre The World Heritage Centre is the permanent secretariat of the Convention, set up in Paris in 1992; it pursues the objectives of the Convention and manages the World Heritage Fund.

• Advisory bodies that cooperate to the Implementation of the Convention

  The representatives of several global organisations devoted to the protection of the World Heritage participate, as advisors, to the meetings of the World Heritage Committee. These organisations are: ICOMOS – International Council of Monuments and Sites, that provides technical-scientific opinions on how to preserve the heritage. ICCROM – International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, based in Rome IUCN – International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. In addition to these organizations, the World Heritage Committee may decide to consult other sources (organizations or individuals), and may be advised to do so by the Member States. UNESCO Permanent Inter-Ministerial Working Group on World Heritage. Established in 1997 at MiBACT (Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism), it coordinates the various Administrations responsible for implementing the Convention. In addition to MiBACT it includes: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Environment and Territorial Protection, the UNESCO Italian National Commission, the Ministry of Education, University and Research and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The Working Group is chaired by the Undersecretary to the Heritage and Cultural Activities, with UNESCO mandate. CNI – Italian National Commission for UNESCO. As in the other Member States, in compliance with the indications in the 1945 Convention, Italy has established an official permanent liaison between the Italian Government and UNESCO: the CNI, established in 1950. The Commission is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has the task of ensuring and maintaining the connection with UNESCO and of promoting, informing, consulting and implementing UNESCO initiatives, directions and guidelines in Italy. UNESCO World Heritage Office. Established in 2004, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism The Ministry coordinates efforts and provides supports for the achievement of the objectives of the Convention on national territory. Associazione Beni Italiani Patrimonio Mondiale UNESCO. The Associazione is a vital partner and the first point of contact for the Italian ministerial bodies for anything related to protection, promotion and knowledge of the Italian World Heritage and it promotes and undertakes targeted projects and heritage promotion initiatives.

The World Heritage List

The World Heritage Convention Set up the World Heritage List (WHL), containing all the heritage regarded as having Outstanding Universal Value –(OUV) by the World Heritage Committee.

• World Heritage Properties

  A World Heritage Property is a product of man or nature that possesses an Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) for humanity, regardless of the political affiliation of the place where it is located. It can be a natural habitat or a work of art, a monument or a cultural landscape that has clear signs of an interaction between man and the environment. Italy has 53 World Heritage Sites, more than any other Member State.

• The recognition process: the nomination

  The locations (sites) that host one or more recognized World Heritage Properties are entered in the World Heritage List. In order to obtain recognition, a country that has signed the World Heritage Convention shall submit a nomination file containing all information, documents and describing the property’s OUV according to its compliance to some of the UNESCO selection criteria. The World Heritage Center (WHC) checks that the nomination file is complete and compliant and, if so, submits it to the World Heritage Committee, which meets once a year to examine applications. The Committee then meets to decide whether or not to enter the Property in the World Heritage List.

• Cultural sites

  The first article of the World Heritage Convention contains the definition of “cultural heritage”, that is: a property with a universal exceptional value on the historical, artistic, scientific, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological level. This includes: monuments: architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, elements or structures of an archaeological nature, inscriptions, cave dwellings and combinations of features, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science;groups of buildings: groups of separate or connected buildings which, because of their architecture, their homogeneity or their place in the landscape, are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science;sites: works of man or the combined works of nature and man, and areas including archaeological sites which are of outstanding universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological point of view.

• Natural Sites

  The second article of the World Heritage Convention defines natural heritage as property with exceptional scientific and/or aesthetic features: natural monuments: consisting of physical and biological formations or groups of such formations, which are of outstanding universal value from the aesthetic or scientific point of view;geological and physiographical formations and precisely delineated areas which constitute the habitat of threatened species of animals and plants of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation;natural sites or precisely delineated natural areas of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty.

• Serial and transboundary sites

  World Heritage Sites may be transboundary, if they are located on areas that wind up in the territories of two or more states. In Italy there are the following transboundary sites: Monte San Giorgio, the Rhaetian Railway, the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings in the Alps, the extraterritorial properties of the Holy See in the city of Rome. Another type of sites are the serial sites, which consist of a set of homogeneous Properties located within one or more States Parties. Italian Serial Sites are: the Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany, the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings (which are also a transboundary site), Longobards in Italy (Places of the Power), the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy, the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy in Piedmont, the Dolomites.

• Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage

  The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, approved in 2003, establishes and defines the safeguarding, promotion and awareness of intangible heritage, that is cultural, ethnic, craft traditions that represent the expression and values ​​of groups or communities. The following Italian Intangible Properties are recognised Intangible Heritage of Humanity: the Opera dei Pupi (Sicilian puppet theatre), Canto a tenore (Sardinian pastoral songs), the Mediterranean diet, Traditional violin craftsmanship in Cremona, Celebrations of big shoulder-borne processional structures, Traditional agricultural practice of cultivating the ‘vite ad alberello’ (head-trained bush vines) of the community of Pantelleria and Falconry, a living human heritage.