The Role of Heritage in Post-War Reconciliation: Going Beyond World Heritage Sites

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that reconciliation and sustainable development are processes that necessitate involvement from local, national and international actors. However, with the attention of international actors overwhelmingly focused on World Heritage sites, this chapter seeks to examine the potential consequences of the disparity in treatment between those sites on the World Heritage List and those that are not but are still significant for their local communities. Kosovo and Iraq are the two cases we use to explore the role, use and treatment of heritage in post-war recovery and reconciliation and how this is affected by World Heritage status. Through an examination of heritage as a political process, we can approach a more in-depth understanding of how heritage shapes and reshapes the politics of post-war memory, inter-community relations, and the extent to which the international community uses World Heritage in these communities to mandate their own politics of remembrance. We argue that heritage can have a “pacifying” role and contribute to peacebuilding, but this will need active, transformative actions from UNESCO which go beyond the Convention and, if possible, beyond politically influenced decision-making. This chapter seeks to fill a gap in the literature of how the local, national and international interact in the post-war environment, as well as the true impact of potential inequalities created by World Heritage.