Australian Round Table:
Rights-Based Approaches to Heritage Management
Melbourne, Wednesday, 7 October 2015
What difference does it make to apply a rights-based approach to heritage management?
What are the barriers and enabling factors in implementing a rights-based approach to heritage conservation?
A 1-day round-table was convened in Melbourne to explore these questions with 16 natural and cultural heritage practitioners and researchers from many corners of Australia.
The report of the discussions will contribute to several inter-related international programs:
- ‘Our Common Dignity’ initiative – a joint international program between ICOMOS, IUCN and ICCROM with a focus on rights-based practices in the World Heritage system, funded by the Government of Norway.
- ‘Understanding Rights Practices in the World Heritage System: Lessons from the Asia-Pacific’ – applied research and policy development program led by Dr Peter Larsen of the University of Lucerne, and funded by the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS).
The Round Table was supported by Australia ICOMOS and the Australian Committee for IUCN, and was hosted by Deakin University’s Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation and Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and the Pacific.
The Round Table method enabled a useful exploration of the various perspectives in the room and could be a model for further events in Australia and in other countries, since rights framing and pressures need to be understood in national contexts in order to develop international awareness and competence.
Professor Tim Winter, Research Chair of Cultural Heritage, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation
Laura Kraak, PhD candidate, Deakin University
Kristal Buckley AM, Lecturer in Cultural Heritage, Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and the Pacific, Deakin University
