The threat of wars to the invaluable worth of cultural heritage

Some of UNESCO’s core missions involve the protection, safeguarding, and transmission of the world’s cultural and natural heritage to future generations. The temporal dimension of UNESCO heritage, as well as its link to human rights, is of fundamental importance. World Heritage represents the legacy of the past, which we are obliged to preserve and pass on to future generations. The protection and transmission of World Heritage should be regarded as a form of human rights protection, as limiting the deterioration of buildings and cultural works allows masterpieces, cultural traditions, and natural habitats to be preserved for posterity—elements that might otherwise be lost without human intervention. The safeguarding of World Heritage should also entail the adoption of measures aimed at preventing destruction caused by armed conflicts—a matter of significant and pressing contemporary relevance. In times of war, the cultural heritage of countries under attack is particularly at risk. In some cases, attacks specifically target cultural property with the intent to annihilate buildings and works of symbolic importance for the affected population. In the aftermath of the Second World War, to prevent the recurrence of such destruction and plundering, legal instruments such as the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict were adopted, with the aim of protecting tangible heritage. A case in which national initiatives, in compliance with international conventions, combined with UNESCO’s actions and broader international efforts to protect cultural heritage, have played a crucial role in limiting the destructive impact of war is that of Ukraine.