Our Culture Programme

Introduction

UNESCO is the only United Nations agency with a specific mandate for culture and heritage. Culture is unique in its ability to anchor people’s feelings and beliefs to the land in which they live, and to the communities to which they belong. It has the power to transform individuals and societies. UNESCO’s role is to protect heritage and to foster creativity, through advocacy, normative frameworks and promotion of active engagement on the ground. At the highest level, this means promoting the importance of culture in an international context, both culture for its own sake and in relation to sustainable development.

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.

Legal Framework

UNESCO establishes international standards and frameworks through its Conventions, Recommendations and other agreements.

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.

UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict
14 MAY 1954

Signed in the wake of the massive destruction of cultural and historical objects and monuments experienced across the globe during the Second World War, the Convention protects immovable and movable cultural heritage.

Convention on Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property
14 NOV 1970

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.

Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage
16 NOV 1972

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.

Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions
20 OCT 2005

Through the 2005 Convention for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the international community recognised the dual nature, both cultural and economic, of contemporary cultural expressions produced by artists.

Policy Advice

The UK National Commission for UNESCO informs and advises on international and domestic culture policy to UNESCO and UK Government.

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.

Policy Briefs

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.

The Value to the UK of Ratifying The 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property
SEP 2012

Policy Brief Series n°2

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.

Technical Evaluation of UNESCO World Heritage Sites
MAR 2015

Policy Brief Series n°18

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.

UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage: Next steps for the UK Government
MAR 2015

Policy Brief Series n°17

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.

Policy Documents

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.

Sirkka-Liisa Kontinnen’s Photography and Amber Films
JUNE 2020

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.

Cultural Heritage Innovation
JULY 2019

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.

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew UNESCO World Heritage site
JULY 2019

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 at Edinburgh Creative City of Literature
JULY 2019
Policy Document

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.

Expert Advice

Each and every accredited expert within our network is tasked with a specific committee or programme within UNESCO’s framework. Our Experts are pro-bono specialists who help to advise the UK and Devolved Governments on policy relating to UNESCO’s programmes.

Our Accredited Experts 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 Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London and Paris, to advise the UK and/or devolved governments on UNESCO related matters.

Sites & Initiatives

The UK’s portfolio of UNESCO cultural sites and activities are some of the most visible of UNESCO’s programmes, and work to promote our culture and preserve it for generations to come.

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.

Sites

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 UNESCO Creative Cities which show us the power of the UK’s creativity as a force for economic and sustainable development.

Explore our Sites

Projects

The UK National Commission collaborates on, and endorses projects that enhance, promote and preserve the culture in the UK, both past and present.

Illuminated River

ADVISOR – SINCE 2019

Illuminated River is an ambitious new art commission for London that lights up 14 bridges along the Thames in central London.

Heritage and Our Sustainable Future

In Partnership with PRAXIS at the University of Leeds

A report series exploring how best we can utilise cultural heritage to achieve the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Partners

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.

World Heritage UK

World Heritage UK is a charity dedicated to supporting UNESCO World Heritage Sites (and prospective sites) in the UK. It aims to raise the profile of the UK’s World Heritage Sites and help secure their future.

Heritage Alliance

Established in 2002, Heritage Alliance is a coalition of over 130 independent heritage organisations in England. It advocates on behalf of its members and represents broader heritage issues to government and decision-makers.

Prizes

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.

UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture
PRIZE – SINCE 1989

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.

UNESCO-Jikji Memory of the World Prize
PRIZE – SINCE 2004

The Prize rewards individuals or organisations for outstanding efforts towards the preservation and accessibility of documentary heritage.

International Days

UNESCO recognises significant days in the year with ‘International Day’ status.

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage
OCTOBER 27

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
MARCH 21

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.

African World Heritage Day
MAY 05

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.