UK National Commission for UNESCO response to DCMS World Heritage Policy Review Consultation
The UK National Commission for UNESCO Culture Committee has submitted a response to the public consultation 'World Heritage for the Nation: Identifying, Protecting and Promoting our World Heritage', published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Among other recommendations, the Culture Committee's response suggests:
The Consultation perhaps missed the opportunity to set the review in the broader context of UNESCO’s goals and those of Government – to raise awareness in the broader public arena of those goals. The World Heritage Convention is one of the instruments that UNESCO promotes in seeking to attain its goals including sustainable development; it is not simply a conservation instrument.
The UKNC has long supported a return to the original spirit of the Convention and its focus on international co-operation. The Committee acknowledges that the review makes reference to some of these points but feels that perhaps they could have been featured as a more central strand.
The UKNC strongly supports the third option of consultation question 1 regarding the future nomination of UK World Heritage Sites - The UK should draw up a shorter and more focused Tentative List, spacing out our nominations so that we are not necessarily proposing a new site each year and introducing a two-stage application process to filter out early those sites unlikely to be successful.
The UKNC welcomes recent measures to strengthen and embed World Heritage Sites within the planning system (draft planning circular et al.), but would also like to see a specific duty to have special regard to WHS in exercising planning functions across the UK.
Read the full UK National Commission for UNESCO response here.
The Consultation is seeking to explore the extent to which the UK's current approach to World Heritage supports the interests of the UK Government and Overseas Territories in protecting and promoting their cultural and natural heritage; their wider strategic priorities; and their international goals, particularly in relation to UNESCO.
World Heritage provides a unique opportunity to raise awareness of global issues and hence provides an important means of achieving both UNESCO’s mission and the UK Government’s aims for international sustainable development. The UK National Commission is encouraged that the consultation will explore how the UK’s approach to WHS respects the original spirit of the World Heritage Convention and its focus on international co-operation.
The Commission strongly feels that the UK Government has demonstrated clear leadership in this area of UNESCO’s remit, particularly in relation to standard-setting in conservation management. The opportunity to continue and build on this success should not be missed.
The Commission was delighted to have been involved in the Policy Steering Group in preparation of the consultation and we look forward to contributing further to the process.
Written: 24/02/2009 , last modified: 24/02/2009
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