Heritage: A Look Into the Management Role of UNESCO
The role that UNESCO plays while a site is in the process of obtaining World Heritage status is direct and overseeing, but what rights, after World Heritage Site designation, does UNESCO have to step in and correct sites’ management plans when they are not upholding their original designating factors? The Historic Centre of Cordoba, located in Spain within the province of Cordoba, was inscribed onto the World Heritage List in 1984 based off multiple World Heritage Site criteria.
According to UNESCO, The Historic Centre of Cordoba was inscribed onto the World Heritage List based off:
Criterion (i): The Great Mosque of Cordoba, with its dimensions and the boldness of its interior elevation, which were never imitated, make it a unique artistic creation
Criterion (ii): Despite its uniqueness, the mosque of Cordoba has exercised a considerable influence on western Muslim art from the 8th century. It influenced as well the development of “Neo-Moresque” styles of the 19th century.
Criterion (iii): The Historic Centre of Córdoba is the highly relevant testimony to the Caliphate of Cordoba (929–1031): this city — which, it is said, enclosed 300 mosques and innumerable palaces — [was] the rival of Constantinople and Baghdad.
Criterion (iv): It is an outstanding example of the religious architecture of Islam.
For centuries the idealized notion of La Convivencia, or coexistence of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, has flourished throughout the site and acted as a defining factor of its’ unique cultural diversity and religious inclusion. Based off of the criterion selection, the assumption is that the site would promote itself in a way that honored those unique aspects rather than to downplay them in any way. However, that has not been the case. While it is no secret that for centuries the site has experienced shifts of occupation by many cultural groups, and that the influence of Muslim and Christian architecture and redesign is obvious in both the interior and exterior of the structure, in recent years the site has experienced a shockingly high amount of negative publicity for acts towards Muslims. Since the Catholic Church took over the site in 1236, any type of Islamic worship has been outlawed, and only throughout the last decade or so have followers of the Islamic faith and sympathizers pushed for the repeal of this both from the Vatican and even to Pope Benedict XVI himself; all met with no amendment. Throughout the last 10 years there have been numerous incidents of direct refusal of any Islamic worship, with groups of Muslims forcibly removed from the site as they were in the middle of peaceful prayer, and even peaceful protests from non-Muslims was met by security and police intervention.
The issue at hand here is less about how the Catholic Church decides to manage the site, but rather how the site’s central management team should be working to manage the site in terms of integrity to its’ World Heritage Site status. These issues bring up many questions about what UNESCO’s role, if any, should be in addressing the issues of exclusivity of groups, in a site that was specifically designated a World Heritage Site based off of its’ diverse cultural background, and historical notions of coexistence. One of the most important element of a World Heritage Site is it’s inclusive universal value to all people throughout the world. No matter what a person’s religious identification is, a World Heritage Site should allow for people of all backgrounds to interpret their own form of a cultural experience at the site; and it should be at the responsibility of site managers at the front lines to insure that specific religious groups are not purposefully excluded. By allowing all groups to experience and interact with the site with equal rights of access, the Historic Site of Cordoba would be able to better maintain one of its’ most historically valued cultural elements; the coexistence of religious groups.
When a site is inscribed on the World Heritage List, and then events take place that undermine the exact definitions of ‘outstanding universal value’, should UNESCO step in and take direct action in efforts to help to curve this type of activity when it goes against the core values that the World Heritage List tries to promote? And furthermore to what extent, if any should UNESCO act as a responsible party to insure that the management of the inscribed sites is held at accountable standards? We must insure that issues like this are taken seriously, and means to an end of this kind of activity could include UNESCO stripping The Historic Centre of Cordoba of its’ World Heritage Site status if the management team refuses to amend any of these procedures regarding the banning of one specific religion’s peaceful prayer attempt. While they may not have a say in how the site is run on a day to day basis, what they do have a say in, is the designation itself. While it is an agreed upon notion that no country wants UNESCO acting as a ‘big brother’ figure in the management of any World Heritage Site, UNESCO must take some responsibility to insure that its’ mission statement, “The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.”, is upheld at every World Heritage Site throughout the world.
