UNESCO and the Shaping of Global Heritage

By the turn of the millennium, heritage had taken center stage at UNESCO. 1 Today the organization’s flagship heritage instrument, the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (generally known as the World Heritage Convention), and this convention’s list of sites of “outstanding universal value”, the World Heritage List, constitute its most publicly identifiable mission. UNESCO’s heritage instruments and projects have greatly influenced national heritage policies worldwide, and it is for this reason that this chapter details the rise of heritage as part of the organization’s mandate, the mutations in its understanding and promulgation of heritage, and the effects of its heritage policies on the ground. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.