International Seminar on Living Religious World Heriatge Sites: Participatory Management and Sustainable Use

This International Seminar, as a follow-up activity of the 2010 Kyiv International Seminar Recommendations, endorsed by the World Heritage Committee (Decision 35 COM 5A, UNESCO, 2011), contributed to the implementation of the UNESCO Initiative on Heritage of Religious Interest and its Cycle of Thematic Expert consultations launched by UNESCO in 2016. It also contributed to the further dissemination of Kyiv Statement and Yerevan Recommendation, as well as to the development of a Thematic Paper to provide States Parties with general guidance on the management of the cultural and natural heritage properties of religious interest.

The seminar feuatured presentations from 12 countries, from Europe, Africa and the Arab countries regions, belonging to several Christian denominations, related to numerous Cultural WHS and a few mixed cultural and natural sites, all of them having significant religious interest. The presentations showed many good experiences and a few cases where the preservation of OUV was not been secured. Most good experiences showed examples of healthy, effective collaboration between governmental agencies, religious institutions and local communities, be they lay o religious. The lack of the required collaboration or dialogue among the key partners was identified as one of the main reason of mismanagement in some cases

More information: UNESCO Initiative of WHS of Religious Interest.