Over the years, many charters and conventions have been adopted worldwide to help conservators and managers document, preserve and conserve heritage’s tangible and intangible aspects. When protecting the world’s cultural, natural, and intangible heritage, UNESCO has developed two significant conventions, the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972) and the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003).
Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage
The concept regarding the protection of heritage has gone through many ups and downs when it comes to its emergence and development. The convention was adopted on 16th November 1972, during the General Conference of UNESCO. The convention proposes to regard both cultural and natural heritage in which people interact with nature, and the balance between the two needs to be preserved. It promotes worldwide recognition and collaboration in preserving global heritage while encouraging national initiatives to preserve cultural and natural heritage.
The convention focuses on identifying, protecting, conserving, preserving, and transmitting the cultural and natural heritage of Outstanding Universal Value to future generations. After the convention’s adoption, the concept of sustainable development was also brought into the frame as the protection and conservation of the natural and cultural heritage contributed to it.
The convention’s preamble states that world heritage is threatened due to various forms of destruction caused due to many factors like economic, social, and urban development. The only solution to protecting their heritage for the future generation can be done by implementing acceptable worldwide cooperation that will assist the endangered area. The World Heritage Convention has established a list of areas that need immediate help in terms of funding and protection.
The main objective of the World Heritage Convention is based on:
- Ensuring the protection of endangered cultural and natural resources
- Enhance sustainable development by focusing on heritage tourism.
Content of the Convention:
- The convention solely focuses on the protection and analysis of unique architectural buildings, heritage sites, and cultural relics that have unique universal values and cannot be replaced by other cultural resources in the light of scientific, historical, and artistic perspectives.
- As stated in the ‘Operational Guidelines of the World Heritage Convention, some principles must have a series of protection measures during the protection practices.
- Both nature and culture of a location are enlisted into the list presented by WCH for protection as they highlight the harmony between humans and the environment.
- The convention also highlights that the listed sites are not only the convention’s responsibility but also the national responsibility of the particular country.
The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage: The Living Cultures of People.
In 2003, UNESCO adopted a new international treaty, The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The convention aims to protect and ensure the survival of the world’s living local traditions and national and regional cultural practices, which might face a decline and abolishment due to rising globalization.
I would also like to term the convention as The Living Cultures of People, as the convention points out that culture is not only embedded in the location through the built and natural environment but is available through oral, visual, and sensory forms. As many people forget about its existence, their heritage value decreases and is ultimately forgotten.
If we read through the text given by UNESCO about the convention, one finds that the convention has changed the local terms like folklore into oral Heritage or wall paintings into visual art, etc. Through this document, the countries can safeguard the losing traditional practices that are being followed in the local communities and digitally inaccessible tribal locations.
Characters of the Convention:
Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) focuses on:
- Traditional and living heritage of people and location at the same time.
- The practice of sharing traditions
- Representation of communities through their craft, languages, art, etc
For a practice to be recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage, it should still be in practice and remain relevant to culture while being passed down from generation to generation.
ICH highlights the importance of community involvement in sustainability, and safeguarding the practice is necessary as, without comprehensive information about the tradition and culture, the experts cannot document in depth. So in future studies, there might be weak links that may or may not be resolved. Through an in-depth understanding of the arts, festivals, crafts, and living practices, only one will be able to strengthen a sense of cultural identity and distinctiveness of a location. While doing so, the experts also need to respect the communities’ beliefs in any decision-making process. Suppose we go back to the Man of the Hole example given above. In that case, we can argue that due to the community not being willing to involve the new generation in order to have their practices documented, the tribe stayed undiscovered. (But we can also argue that there are chances that the tribe could be violent towards the globalized population).
The community’s opinions and perspectives must be considered essential in decision-making processes. The community’s involvement in a place’s significant cultural activities promotes integration of the social, political and economic aspects of the place.
For example:
Recently, the world’s loneliest man, often coined as ‘Man of the Hole,’ died due to natural circumstances. The man was the last of an indigenous group alive in the Tanaru indigenous area who lost his entire tribal community due to internal wars. For the last 26 years, he was the lone survivor of the community. The man avoided any contact with the outside world, due to which there is no documentation of the traditions the tribe followed or the language they spoke, or which ethnic group the man belonged to. Groups have tried documenting his activities, but still, less to nothing is known.
If this convention had been formed before 2003, today, we might have had documented reports of the tribe and, in this matter, might as well have saved the tribe from total extinction. Though there was a prior recommendation called The Recommendation on the safeguarding of traditional culture and folklore, due to the lack of its binding nature, lack of funding, and not enough involvement of experts, the recommendation failed to be implemented for this tribe.
Conventions and their Work aspects
Comparing the role of experts in both the 1972 and 2003 conventions. In the 1972 WCH convention, the role of experts is very vital for any steps to be taken in terms of preservation, conservation, and protection of sites, especially in built environment scenarios but in the 2003 ICH conventions, the experts play more of a mediator or facilitator role who map the route of practice between the generations of people.
The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage have been dominantly used throughout the years. If we look at WCH, the convention works with both built and natural environments when it is protecting and conserving a location/site. But if we look at the percentage of site identification done by the experts for the heritage list. There is more focus on the built environment than the natural environment, and very few sites are mentioned under the mixed category. To my understanding, even though the convention is shedding light on both environments, there is dominant research on the built environment. Due to this, I had raised the question regarding Hampi, the group of monuments located in Karnataka, India- That is only the built environment is considered when Hampi is researched or documented?
The 2003 Intangible Cultural Heritage convention comes in between the 1972- World Heritage Convention and the 2005-Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions conventions (2005 convention aims to provide craftsmen, artists, and professionals a landscape to create, promote, and enjoy a wide range of goods and services) as it aims to safeguard the intangible form of heritage which include the Oral traditions and expressions, Performing arts; Social practices, rituals, and festive events; Knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe; and Traditional craftsmanship.
But in the end, both the conventions are helping the world preserve the areas of heritage that would have been lost with time if these conventions were absent. So even if they are difficult to implement and need a lot of work and research, the conventions have made a difference in conserving, preserving, and practicing these heritage traditions that are diminishing due to the rise in globalization.
References:
- What is Intangible Cultural Heritage? Intangible Cultural Heritage. (n.d.). https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/01851-EN.pdf
- “Man of the Hole”: Last of His Tribe Dies in Brazil.” BBC News, 29 Aug. 2022, www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-62712318.
- “UNESCO – Intangible Heritage Home.” Unesco.org, 2018, ich.unesco.org/.
- “UNESCO – Intangible Heritage Home.” Unesco.org, 2018, ich.unesco.org/.
- Wikipedia Contributors. “Man of the Hole.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Nov. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_of_the_Hole. Accessed 18 Nov. 2019.
