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In partnership with UNESCO's Oral Archives Initiative, the authors have set out to capture the voices of those who have played a significant role in the creation and early development of the World Heritage Convention. The recorded interviews with the men and women who were active participants in this early period are designed to supplement the existing literature and voluminous documentation from the statutory and expert meetings. The uniqueness of this World Heritage research project is the important role that the voices of the pioneers will play in illuminating the successes and failures, the struggles and triumphs of the early years. This paper aims to share some of the findings.

The selection of the first group of interviewees has been made on the basis of the importance of the person's involvement in World Heritage matters, age, diversity of interests and geographical distribution. The interviews are structured with specific questions to identify key issues and cases that have affected the development of the World Heritage system. Topics are explored and teased out, adapting to the experience of each interviewee.

To date, the authors have interviewed 31 participants from all geographical regions of UNESCO. The interviews have created a rich and diverse tapestry of information, concepts and opinions on the early days of the World Heritage Convention. Participants in the project have been generous with their time and passionately candid in their views. In this paper, the authors offer a glimpse into the results of this research by presenting some samples from three interviews.

The interviews provide a unique and original viewpoint on the creation and early implementation of the World Heritage Convention. Preliminary results point to a deeper understanding of the forces that led to the creation of the convention and the leadership role played by certain individuals in transforming these ideas for international cooperation into reality. At the completion of the project, this data set of interviews will be deposited in the UNESCO Archives for consultation by future generations of researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse various aspects of education for sustainable development (ESD) drawing attention to the approaching end of the UN Decade on ESD (DESD) in 2014 and to the necessity of the continuation of ESD activities. Defining the internationalisation of education as an ever more significant part of globalisation, the paper insists that the education should be recognised as the foundation for sustainable development and building of the global knowledge society.

The author presents a vision of the education as of a global “soft power” thus introducing a new understanding and a different application of the notion used mainly in a negative sense which, in author's opinion, can serve as educational instrument and technology of attraction. The author's methodology and approach take note of the basic principles of the globalisation theory and include the recognition of the fact that the contradiction between global interdependent problems of the planetary scale on one side and the existing rather fragmentary and desultory way of acquiring knowledge on the other side is the main challenge to the present and future quality of the human potential.

Considering ways how to continue the work on ESD after the end of the UN DESD in 2014, the author expresses a point of view that it should be an innovation project requiring state, public, law and financial support. United Nations Organization for Science, Culture and Education (UNESCO) Chairs have an important role to play as a new instrument of the global educational “soft power” inspired to promote knowledge and scientific experience worldwide.

Authentic experience of the UNESCO Chair creation and activity at the Faculty of Global Studies at Moscow State University is shown. The author having about 40 years of experience of cooperation with UNESCO as a member of a group of experts at the Director General, later – as a diplomat at UNESCO and recently – as UNESCO Chairholder presents an original point of view based on personal findings and conclusions.

The origins of the UNISIST programme proposals are to be found in the concerns of the scientific community itself for the survival of its traditional communication institutions. From the outset, the concern transcended political and ideological boundaries. Scientists of East and West, meeting under Pugwash Conference auspices, in Karlovy Vary in 1964, viewed the tendency toward fractional and unco‐ordinated mechanization of information processing in different countries and in different fields of science with apprehension. Were the sciences in the process of creating in the electronic age a new Tower of Babel? Would the adventitious application of technology defeat the fundamental purpose of free and open scientific communication among all nations?

The purpose of this paper is to describe the emergence of the concept of outstanding universal value and its application from the ancient to modern times culminating with its codification under the auspices of UNESCO in 1972.

The nearly four decades‐long application of UNESCO's World Heritage Convention offers a solid basis for a critical reflection regarding past achievements and future challenges. An entire review of this being beyond the scope of a single paper, it focuses on only a few salient issues which illustrate how this unique international legal instrument evolved in the past 39 years.

The paper singles out for each of the four stages at least one emblematic and most threatened World Heritage property, in order to illustrate major legal issues and how these were addressed by the parties.

As Secretary of the World Heritage Committee as well as Founder Director of the World Heritage Centre viewpoints the author presents that constitute a direct and continuous observation of World Heritage related matters over the last four decades.

Based on the world report, The World Ahead: our Future in the Making, this article identifies four major challenges which we face at the dawn of the 21st century: peace, social inequality, sustainable development and long‐term global planning. It argues that society needs to be rebuilt and envisages it as an international democracy founded on four pillars or contracts – social, natural, cultural and ethical – and looks at some of the preconditions and costs.

The purpose of this paper is to account for and to justify the UN's recent appeal to “all Member States, intergovernmental bodies, organizations of the United Nations system and relevant non‐governmental organizations […] to ensure a more visible and effective integration and mainstreaming of culture in development policies and strategies at all levels”.

The paper delves into the history of ideas leading up to the UN's belated recognition of culture's influence (a full ten years into the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)). It shows how the post‐Second World War intuitions embraced in UNESCO's Constitution matured in the course of the nation‐building and decolonization processes that have given way to today's context of advanced globalization.

Against that background, rising international awareness of the issues involved in the environment‐development nexus conspired with growing concern for the safeguarding of world heritage and cultural diversity, finally culminating in the establishment of specific international standards that call for sustainable, integrated approaches to development.

Drawing from UNESCO's experience, the paper provides compelling evidence in support of the idea that culture, creative industries and cultural heritage contribute a great deal to development, in terms not only of quantitative economic growth (income, employment), but also of qualitative standards of equity and well‐being. In light of such criteria, examples are offered and plans are laid out for concerted action in view of attaining the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and of building on from there.

The Seminar for the International Exchange of Publications in the Indo‐Pacific Area, inspired by Unesco and sponsored by the National Diet Library of Japan, was held at Tokyo from 4 November to 11 November, 1957. There were no less than thirty‐two participants, delegates, and observers, from the following countries: Australia, Cambodia, Ceylon, Chile, the Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Laos, Malaya, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the United States of Soviet Russia. Almost all the participating countries deputed librarians of standing to represent them. Among them were Mr. Foster E. Mohrhardt, Director of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Library, Mr. Jennings Wood, Assistant Chief Director, Exchange and Gifts Division of the Library of Congress, Mr. Boris Kanevsky, Chief Librarian, Dept. of International Exchange of Publications of the Lenin State Library, Dr. H. L. White, Librarian, Commonwealth National Library, Canberra, and Dr. Armando Sandoval, Director, Centro de Documentacion Cientifica y Technica de Mexico.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the international agenda regarding the discussion on the sustainable development. It asserts the idea that economic growth is a process that embraces the cultural values, human capability, and transnational policies aimed to guide and support the efforts of nations to achieve social security. The paper places the issues of contemporary heritage science theory on the recent debate concerning the cultural heritage preservation based on scientific, legal, social, and management issues.

The paper selected mainly reports, declarations, resolutions, and recommendations concerning this theme. The framework comprehends almost 30 years: from the first project titled “World Decade of Cultural Development” (1988) to the last conference in Tanzania (2016). Some questions defined the methodological approach of this investigation: how can we generate sustainability in terms of the use, maintenance, and conservation of cultural heritage? How can we adjust the local, national, and international guidelines to a common logic without letting go of the community autonomy?

The paper provides a historical context about the enlargement of the debate concerning the international policies for sustainable development from cultural empowerment. It suggests that UNESCO, WHC, and ICCROM have been promoting positive projects in vulnerable regions.

Eurocentric models of development and occidental concept of culture exposure in the selected documents should be reviewed mainly in decolonization areas.

The article offers a distinct perspective for the system of international evaluation of cultural heritage, and a different focus of reflection for the academic community.

The study promotes a reflection regarding the international agenda for sustainable development over the last 30 years.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the decision‐making process related to the inscription of properties on the World Heritage List.

Consideration is given to the general framework provided by the 1972 World Heritage Convention, and elaborated by the World Heritage Committee in the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the Convention.

The paper examines the tasks and responsibilities of each partner to the World Heritage process, from the State Party to UNESCO and the Advisory Bodies. There is a panorama offered from the changes and trends that have impacted the decisions, including a number of cases as examples. Finally, the paper proposes some improvements to the system, taking into account the role of each stakeholder.

This is the first paper examining the theme concerned.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficacy of the state policy of Ukraine in the sphere of protection of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, measures of safeguarding cultural property in the event of armed conflict and to assess how and why the state funding of culture has changed.

The proposal is to investigate this by discussing the national and international policy frameworks through case study by using quantitative and qualitative methods to disclose if state cultural policy initiatives promote public interest in cultural issues and how the political events in the country affect the distribution of the state funding of culture.

Ukrainian state cultural policy initiatives appear to be effective in protecting cultural heritage at both central and local levels despite redistribution in the state funding of this sphere. In cooperation with international agencies, Ukraine effectively promotes its intangible cultural heritage properties. Interest of the public in the state cultural policy issues has grown considerably. Problems exist with the protection of Ukrainian cultural sites located in war zones and disputed territories.

These findings demonstrate how the state policies aimed at protecting Ukrainian cultural heritage may be effectively implemented at different levels in cooperation with international agencies; how the political landscape in the country promotes the public interest in cultural policy issues. This case forms an example of steps aimed at protecting cultural properties on disputed territories in cooperation with intermediaries, such as UNESCO.