What are the biggest challenges UNESCO faces in protecting intangible cultural heritage in conflict zones, and how are these being addressed?
Public question
The description of this question involves examining:
-
Identification of Challenges:
- Security Risks: The presence of ongoing violence and instability makes it difficult for UNESCO and local communities to protect and preserve intangible cultural heritage.
- Displacement of Communities: Conflicts often force communities to flee, leading to the loss of traditional practices and knowledge that are not easily transferred or maintained in new environments.
- Destruction and Looting: Cultural sites and artifacts, including those associated with intangible heritage, may be targeted, destroyed, or looted during conflicts.
- Lack of Resources: Conflict zones typically suffer from a lack of financial, technical, and human resources needed to effectively safeguard intangible cultural heritage.
-
Strategies and Responses:
- Emergency Measures: Implementing emergency safeguarding measures, such as documentation and digital recording of practices, to preserve knowledge and traditions even if physical preservation is not possible.
- Community Involvement: Empowering local communities and involving them in the preservation efforts to ensure that the cultural practices are maintained and transmitted.
- International Collaboration: Working with international organizations, governments, and NGOs to provide support, resources, and expertise needed for the protection of intangible cultural heritage.
- Awareness and Advocacy: Raising awareness about the importance of intangible cultural heritage and advocating for its protection as a critical part of humanitarian aid and reconstruction efforts.
The Intergovernmental Committee for safeguarding ICH raised the importance on protecting ICH in emergency situations in 2016, in 2018 it proposed to define operational guidelines to better frame strategies and activities in this field.
An expert meeting was held in 2019, whose conclusions can be found in: https://ich.unesco.org/en/events/expert-meeting-on-intangible-cultural-heritage-in-emergencies-00718
Since then this topic has been addressed in some projects and programmes for example, including an emergency assistance requests chapter within the ICH Fund: https://ich.unesco.org/en/requesting-assistance-00039
More concretely, activities pointed out the importance of working with displaced populations and ICH in case of armed conflict:
https://ich.unesco.org/en/news/community-based-needs-identification-underway-for-living-heritage-among-displaced-communities-from-ukraine-13403
Or working in the field with community needs in conflict zones in the field of ICH: https://ich.unesco.org/en/news/local-stakeholders-in-goma-approve-the-community-based-needs-identification-exercise-for-the-safeguarding-of-intangible-cultural-heritage-in-nord-kivu-00265
Challenges may concern the inclusion of ICH at all levels of humanitarian assistance and coordinated responses in crisis situations including culture, as whole as cross-cutting dimension in prevention, response and post-conflict.
Marina Calvo
UNESCO faces significant challenges in protecting intangible cultural heritage in conflict zones. These challenges include:
1. Destruction and Loss of Cultural Practices:
Conflict often leads to the destruction of cultural sites and the loss of cultural practices, languages, and traditions as communities are displaced or decimated.
UNESCO collaborates with local communities, NGOs, and governments to document and safeguard these practices. This includes creating inventories, providing technical assistance, and promoting awareness of the importance of intangible cultural heritage.
2. Displacement of Communities:
Displacement disrupts the transmission of cultural knowledge and practices from one generation to the next.
UNESCO supports displaced communities by facilitating the documentation and preservation of their cultural expressions. Programs and initiatives are designed to help these communities continue their traditions in new environments.
3. Legal and Political Obstacles:
Political instability and lack of legal frameworks can prevent effective cultural heritage protection.
UNESCO works to influence policy and legal frameworks at the national and international levels to ensure the protection of cultural heritage. They also engage in advocacy and diplomatic efforts to raise awareness and garner support.
4. Awareness and Education:
Lack of awareness and understanding of the value of intangible cultural heritage can lead to its neglect.
UNESCO runs awareness campaigns and educational programs to highlight the importance of intangible cultural heritage. They work with schools, universities, and community groups to integrate cultural heritage education into curriculums.
5. Security Risks:
The presence of conflict poses significant security risks to those working to protect intangible cultural heritage.
UNESCO collaborates with local and international security agencies to create safe environments for cultural heritage protection activities. They also provide training and support to local communities to safeguard their heritage.
6. Technological and Digital Gaps:
Limited access to technology and digital tools can hinder the documentation and preservation efforts.
UNESCO promotes the use of digital technologies to document and disseminate intangible cultural heritage. They provide training and resources to local communities and organizations to enhance their digital capabilities.
7. Lack of Resources and Funding:
Insufficient funding and resources hinder the effective protection and promotion of intangible cultural heritage in conflict zones.
UNESCO seeks funding from various sources, including international donors and partnerships with private and public sectors. They also encourage member states to allocate resources for the protection of cultural heritage.
Additional UNESCO's strategies to address these challenges include:
By combining these strategies, UNESCO aims to mitigate the impact of conflict on intangible cultural heritage and ensure its preservation for future generations.
Another Initiatives by UNESCO in addition to the one identified here above is the Emergency Safeguarding of the Syrian Cultural Heritage Project https://ich.unesco.org/en/projects/emergency-safeguarding-of-the-syrian-...'s%20rich%20and%20unique
Cristina Menegazzi, PhD
Conflict zones provide a myriad of challenges when it comes to preservation of intangible cultural heritage. Preservation of intangible cultural heritage is simply the preservation of the ways of life that have defined the community and individuals often for millennia. Systems of protracted conflicts have long lasting impact on traditional societies via forced displacements and destruction and looting of societies’ habitats. The most challenging and enduring aspect of conflict systems is the political economy war generates. Political economy of war feeds off of practices of exclusion and extraction. Multiple stakeholders from local warlords, malignant neighbors, and international corporations to consumers of cheap products in developed and developing world directly or indirectly benefit from the collateral destruction of intangible cultural heritage of traditional societies.
UNESCO does not have any silver bullets on its disposal to quell the eventuality of such multifaceted destruction pattern. However, there are certain approaches that can be reinforced through advocacy and engagement with local communities, governments and international partners.
At the Local Community Level UNESCO has short-term and mid-term-oriented interventions. In the short-term, UNESCO is mostly concerned about assessment of the negative direct impact on the livelihood of traditional societies. UNESCO dispatches team of experts who conduct an immediate post-violence needs-assessment and prepare a roadmap of implementing future mitigating measures. In the mid-term UNESCO funds projects that educates local communities on how to preserve their intangible cultural heritage. These skills include documenting and transmitting oral histories, legends, tales, songs, sayings along with larger language and belief systems by, with and to the younger generations.
At the Governmental Level, UNESCO identifies and funds stakeholders including the ministry of culture, academics at national universities who see the value of preserving the intangible cultural heritage of traditional societies facing the threat of extinction. One of the key advantages of UNESCO is its close cooperation with other UN bodies who communicate the risk of losing international prestige to heads of governments.
At the International Level, UNESCO is at its best in raising awareness of destruction of intangible cultural heritage in war zones that may amount to a form of cultural genocide. Coordinating with other transnational advocacy organizations yields immediate results primarily through the use of social media to influence international public opinion. Other international organizations such as the World Bank Group along with coalition of donors for post-conflict reconstruction efforts make preservation of intangible cultural heritage one of the conditions of receiving international development aid.
Doga U. Eralp, Ph.D.