#Culture
We monitor legal instruments the UK has ratified as a member of UNESCO, work with leading experts to advise the UK and devolved governments on UNESCO programmes and support UNESCO designations in the UK.
Browse our #InFocus Programmes
#Quote
UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, at Culture Ministers Forum, November 2019
Introduction
Since 1945, UNESCO has been setting international agreements to guard against the numerous risks and dangers threatening cultural heritage, such as war, political, ethnic and religious conflict, looting, theft, illegal export and import, illicit trafficking of cultural property, deterioration, neglect, destruction of or alteration to heritage, pollution, and disappearance. UNESCO’s frameworks help to conserve and protect the world’s cultural property including books, art and monuments for the benefit of current societies and future generations.
While no global definition of “cultural heritage” exists, UNESCO’s Conventions protect the values that people and communities place on cultural heritage including: cultural property, cultural heritage sites, underwater cultural heritage, documentary and digital heritage, oral traditions, rites and beliefs, music, traditional medicine, historic cities, and traditional sports and games.
Through its Conventions and programmes UNESCO also seeks to strengthen and protect creativity and cultural pluralism. Through its membership of UNESCO, the UK’s culture and heritage join and contribute to humanity’s global story.
#HeritageProtection #WorldHeritage #IllicitTrafficking #CulturalPropertyProtection #CreativeCities #IndigenousLanguages #CulturalInternationalDays #MemoryoftheWorld
At the heart of UNESCO’s legal framework in the sphere of Culture lies a suite of Cultural Conventions and Recommendations. Together they establish a robust international framework for protecting culture and promoting participation and therefore laying the foundation for sustainable development. This legal framework is complemented by programmatic initiatives including the UNESCO Creative Cities network, in which UK Cities play an active part.
#KeyCulturalFramework
The convention protects all traces of human existence which have a cultural, historical or archaeological character and have been underwater for over 100 years. This includes shipwrecks, coastal cities, ports and structures, sacred places and burial sites and objects within them vulnerable to pillage.
The decision to adopt this convention was a borne out of the increasing number of thefts from archaeological sites, collections and museums in the second half of the 20th century.
The Convention sets out the need to protect each Member States’ national heritage as well as its properties inscribed onto the World Heritage List and is the most publicly well known of any of UNESCO’s initiatives.
This recommendation builds on existing conservation practices and serves as a tool to integrate policies and practices of conservation of the built environment into the wider goals of urban development.
Since 1946, the UK National Commission for UNESCO has been ensuring the UK’s leading specialists, intellectuals and academics are contributing to and shaping UNESCO’s culture mandate. We also advise the UK and devolved governments on policy relating to UNESCO’s culture activities. This advice ensures the UK Governments are adhering to the text of these legal instruments by fulfilling their obligations and promoting their aims and intentions within the UK.
UNESCO’s new Recommendation on protecting documentary heritage including in digital form is a valuable advocacy and communications tool.
UNESCO’s new Recommendation on protecting documentary heritage including in digital form is a valuable advocacy and communications tool.
The UK National Commission has produced and published several long form policy briefs that cover many aspects of the field of Culture. These inform UK Government about the international opportunities in UNESCO’s programmatic sphere, opportunities and guidance on the implementation of more of UNESCO’s suite of Culture conventions, improving on UK obligations under existing legal frameworks and more.
This policy brief recommends that there are no reasons stopping the UK ratifying the Convention except the need to find Parliamentary time to pass the necessary primary legislation.
This policy brief evaluates the UK response to the invitation by UNESCO of well-represented states to voluntarily limit the number of their nominations to the World Heritage List.
This policy brief proposes that ratifying the 2001 Convention could provide the UK with an opportunity to influence the management of UCH internationally and to deploy world-class expertise of UK professionals.
The UK National Commission for UNESCO has a wider portfolio of policy work which spans UNESCO’s four programmatic areas. They advise and inform our stakeholders about issues and opportunities both internationally and within the UK.
This case study describes how, in her own words, UNESCO status has helped raise the profile of Kontinnen’s work as a photographer and ensures that these important sources continue to be preserved and celebrated.
The report, Cultural Heritage Innovation: Opportunities for International Development, finds that the UK cultural heritage sector plays a critical role in the UK’s world-leading research and innovation practices, and is significantly contributing to the UK Government’s international development objectives.
This case study details how UNESCO has played a key role in enhancing Kew’s capability to create new crucial knowledge and how the status has been especially helpful in attracting financial resources.
The Scottish International Storytelling Festival shows that storytelling is a possible means of advancing sustainable development and is a remarkable example of how culture can lead in this area.
Our Expert Network is made up of pro-bono specialists who help to advise the UK and Devolved Governments on policy relating to UNESCO’s programmes.
The relevant UK government department approves Accredited Experts. They have an official role, representing the UK in UNESCO Committees, Commissions and Programmes. They also work with us and the UK Permanent Delegation to UNESCO based with the Department for International Development in London and Paris, to advise the UK and/or devolved governments on UNESCO related matters.
The UNESCO Chair/UNITWIN programme seeks to foster international cooperation and knowledge sharing between higher education institutions. UNESCO Chairs are based within an Institute for Higher Education, and their work identifies with a current UNESCO priority.
Durham’s Chair addresses the social, ethical and economic impacts facing heritage managers by co-designing solutions and training programmes for its protection and inclusive promotion, particularly at living sites.
Our experts represent the UK on a number of committees which implement and oversee UNESCO’s work on culture.
Established in 1978, the committee deals with the restitution or return of cultural property, which has been lost as a result of foreign or colonial occupation or through illicit trafficking. It facilitates bilateral negotiations between the countries concerned and encourages them to conclude agreements.
The World Heritage Committee oversees the World Heritage Convention, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance upon requests from States Parties. It has the final say on whether a property is inscribed on the World Heritage List, evaluates reports and asks Member States to take action when properties are not being properly managed.
We see tangible links to our living past within each day, through our places of worship, museums and architecture. Documents and images recollect and recreate the experiences of past generations linking the communities of the present to those that have gone before.
People also experience culture constantly through the music that they listen to, the language they speak, the food that they eat, oral traditions that are passed down through generations and the festivities they take part in with their neighbours and their families. This heritage creates continuity and cohesion for those disrupted by change, economic instability and can be carried across great distances.
The four nations of the UK and its Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies have a vibrant network of UNESCO culture projects that are working with like-minded people around the world to foster and create peace.
The UK’s cultural and natural heritage is represented by 33 UNESCO World Heritage Sites which serve as reminders of our past from every era from the Neolithic to the 1950s. They span the breadth of all four constituent nations of the United Kingdom and across its Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. The UK is also host to 11 UNESCO Creative Cities which show us the power of the UK’s creativity as a force for economic and sustainable development.
The UNESCO World Heritage Site in Orkney is home to some of the most important Neolithic monuments in Northern Europe which testify to the 4000 year old ceremonial, funerary and domestic components of cultural traditions.
In Dundee, culture and innovation lie at the centre – quite literally. Having grappled with serious post-industrial challenges such as depopulation and job loss, the city has been embracing creativity to boost its economy and enhance public well-being.
The UK National Commission collaborates on, and endorses projects that enhance, promote and preserve the culture in the UK, both past and present.
Since it was established, the UK National Commission for UNESCO has worked in partnership with likeminded organisations and colleagues to help promote and enhance visibility of our Culture, as well as working together to tackle challenges.
UNESCO Prizes in culture are prestigious awards addressing global issues and themes, which are conferred on individuals or organisations by the Director-General for UNESCO upon recommendation by an independent and international jury. They each carry a high symbolic value, and are awarded with a substantial monetary award.
The UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture rewards two laureates each year. To be successful, the individuals, groups or institutions must have contributed significantly towards the development, dissemination, and the promotion of Arab culture in the world.
Since 1946, the UK National Commission for UNESCO’s role is to ensure the UK’s leading specialists, intellectuals and academics are contributing and shaping UNESCO’s science manadate. We also advise the UK and Devolved Government on policy relating to UNESCO’s scientific activities. This advice ensures the UK Government is adhering to the text of these legal instruments by fulfilling its obligations and promoting their aims and intentions within the UK.
The World Day for Audiovisual Heritage (WDAH) is a commemoration of the adoption, in 1980 by the 21st General Conference, of the Recommendation for the Safeguarding and Preservation of Moving Images. The World Day provides an occasion to raise general awareness of the need to take urgent measures and to acknowledge the importance of audiovisual documents.
World Poetry Day is the occasion to honour poets, revive oral traditions of poetry recitals, promote the reading, writing and teaching of poetry, foster the convergence between poetry and other arts.
Proclaimed by the 38th session of the General Conference of UNESCO (November 2015), African World Heritage Day (5 May) is an opportunity for people around the world, and particularly Africans, to celebrate the Continent’s unique cultural and natural heritage.
Take #Culture Further
UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, at Culture Ministers Forum, November 2019
Browse our world of #Culture
click on the links above
#Communication #Information
