CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VI (1) Contemporary-Eurasia-VI-1-engl | Page 67

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VI (1)
bringing together leading experts in the fields of conservation and
restoration of monuments and sites to resolve differences that came out of
World War 1 and to arrive at internationally accepted principles of
cooperation concerning conservation.
In the aftermath of World War 2, when the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was
founded, it took over many of the IIIC’s responsibilities. It seemed
however that it was at this juncture that the importance of preserving
the world’s cultural heritage, was recognised and included in the
mandate of the newly formed UNESCO. Notably, part of the
responsibility of this new organisation as set out in Article 1 of the
UNESCO constitution was to: “Maintain, increase and diffuse
knowledge; by assuming (inter alia) the conservation and protection of
the world’s inheritance of books, works of art, and monuments of
history and science and recommending to the nations concerned the
necessary international conventions” 4 .
Between 1950-1970s, various countries across the globe have
adopted major conventions, recommendations and charters for the
protection of cultural heritage through UNESCO. A number of these
are as follows:
• Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the
Event Of Armed Conflict- 1954
• International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of
Monuments and Sites- 1964
• The Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing
Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property-
1970
• The Convention Concerning Protection of the World Cultural and
Natural Heritage- 1972
Among the myriad of conventions and charters, the Convention
Concerning Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage has
enjoyed the most success, since it has been ratified by more than 85%
of UNESCO’s member states. It has been said that the ratification of
this Convention by member states in UNESCO complements heritage
4
Ibid.
67