ICOMOS Norway

The objective of the Our Common Dignity initiative has been to contribute towards building awareness of rights issues in World Heritage and heritage management, to promote ‘good practice’ approaches to rights and their enabling conditions, and to develop and recommend relevant tools and guidelines in World Heritage, from tentative list nomination through to management.

This document presents the key results of the Our Common Dignity initiative on rights and World Heritage undertaken by the Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Convention (ICCROM, ICOMOS and IUCN) under the coordination of ICOMOS Norway between 2011 and 2016. The report describes and discusses work carried out by the Advisory Bodies during this period, and should not be seen as their final words nor their entire institutional opinion on this topic.

Human rights issues have been an integral dimension of UNESCO's mission and work since its establishment. While rights issues are not explicitly mentioned in the 1972 World Heritage Convention, its Strategic Objective "To enhance the role of communities in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention" underscores the need to respect and support communities to be involved in World Heritage processes. Where rights issues are not addressed, a range of problems and conflicts can arise.

Human rights issues have been an integral dimension of UNESCO's mission and work since its establishment. While rights issues are not explicitly mentioned in the 1972 World Heritage Convention, its Strategic Objective "To enhance the role of communities in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention" underscores the need to respect and support communities to be involved in World Heritage processes. Where rights issues are not addressed, a range of problems and conflicts can arise.