A failure of global documentary heritage? UNESCO's ‘memory of the world’ and heritage dissonance in East Asia

Abstract

UNESCO's ‘Memory of the World’ Programme promotes the preservation, universal access and public awareness of the world's significant documents as the common heritage of all humankind. The inscription of the ‘Documents of Nanjing Massacre’ into the ‘Memory of the World’ Register in 2015 reflects an increasingly globalised concern in the post–Cold War era over the remembrance of war and atrocity. Yet it has reignited the tension between Japan and China, resulting in strong pressure on UNESCO to reform its selection process for contested heritage. This paper addresses the limitations encountered by UNESCO in pursuing the promotion of global documentary heritage from an English School perspective. The 2015 controversy is relevant and indicative to an important question of International Relations on an inherent tension between the solidarist forces of promoting a normative agenda on human rights and common heritage and the pluralist pull of maintaining sovereignty and bringing heritage back to the hands of states.

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