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The Faro Convention

Published on 29/07/2020 (last modified 29/07/2020)

Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society

After the UNESCO’s Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, the new stage of the current process of reappropriation of the cultural heritage as common good, “popular” good, is represented by the Faro Convention. It is a “framework convention”, adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 13 October 2005 and ratified by 17 member States (ratified by Croatia on 1 December 2014). In Italy the implementation process inside our judicial system has been interrupted by the change in government and therefore we have only the draft bill. However, it emphasizes the important aspects of heritage as they relate to human rights and democracy. It promotes a wider understanding of heritage and its relationship to communities and society. The Convention encourages us to recognize that objects and places are not important in themselves, but because of the meanings and uses that people attach to them and the values they represent. Furthermore, the Convention has the merit of defining an innovative and revolutionary concept of cultural heritage, intended as the body of resources inherited from the past, that the people identify as the mirror and expression of their own values, beliefs, knowledge and traditions, in continuous evolution. It recognizes the right of the single citizen and all mankind to benefit from the cultural heritage, tempered by the responsibility of respecting it; these principles are the basis for the chain of research, conservation, protection, management and participation, but also for the cultural dialogue, promoting the birth of a sustainable and multicultural social political and economic environment. In compliance with the Faro Convention, the UnderwaterMuse project aims at developing:  Models for managing underwater cultural heritage in a way that brings benefits for the sustainable economic development of regions», in order to «increase the positive image of underwater archaeology and the involvement of the public in the awareness, the protection and enjoyment of the underwater cultural heritage (A. Roberts, J. Benjamin, J. McCarthy, Marine Stewardship and Maritime Archaeology in Scotland: Preliminary observations from Project SAMPHIRE, IKUWA V).

Find out more on  https://www.coe.int/en/web/culture-and-heritage/faro-convention