Issues of Memory and History: UNESCO and the Politicization of World Heritage Site Nominations

It reflected at the time of its adoption a preoccupation for the preservation of past heritage, for the education of future generations, that dated back to the League of Nations in 1919.1 The World Heritage Center, established in 1992 to act as Secretariat, plays the role of coordinator for matter related to the Convention and organizes the annual session of the World Heritage Committee that decid. [...] However, from the 1980s onwards, and even more so after the end of the Cold War, we saw the global emergence of a trend in favor of gestures of remembrance, focusing on the duty to remember mass crimes in order to avoid their repetition.24 This “global culture of memory” emphasizes the importance of memorial activities to remember the victims of recent conflicts or other negative and divisive memo. [...] The United States criticized the lack of contextualization of the atomic bombings, and demanded that all war sites be excluded from the scope of the Convention, so as not to see themselves singled out for their actions in Japan, but also in Vietnam or France during the deadly Allied bombings at the end of the Second World War.30 It should be noted that the majority of the sites chosen in that cate. [...] In 2018, in a speech to the Diet, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared: “Countless human resources were fostered in the new Meiji era for the modernization of Japan.”43 2018 marked the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Meiji era, during which, “Japan amazed the world as the first non-western country to ride the wave of an industrial revolution, to transform into a modern state without becomin. [...] Others however, perhaps more aware of the rules of complex international diplomatic game, and the reputational risks attached to the politicization of the World Heritage List nomination process, tend to show greater caution.48 This debate reflects the difficulties and the risks of a paralysis or of deviation of its principles the World Heritage Convention is increasingly facing by taking into acco.