Cultural Heritage and Conflict: the view from Europe

Abstract

Why focus on cultural heritage and conflict? Should we not keep conflict out of our own discourse on heritage because it could spoil the positive impact we wish to create? Heritage itself remains of the past; old or recent, beautiful or not, it never reflects only the bright side of history. The dark side of history may be less pleasant, but it does not disappear. We have to face the material and semantic complexity of historic buildings, archeological sites, artworks, artifacts, collections – and give an interpretation that takes into account, among other things, their capacity to provoke debate. Both the Fribourg Declaration of Cultural Rights (Observatory For Diversity And Cultural Rights 2007), which declares that everyone has a personal right to heritage and the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Council of Europe, 2005) open up new perspectives on social participation in heritage making and new lines of tension, opposition and debate, because more people will be encouraged to participate in debate and negotiation. The logic behind the concept of such debates on heritage is that, after the exchange of views, the opposing parties may be in a better position to identify what they disagree about and may perhaps accept some of the adversary’s arguments and agree on some points, or gallantly agree to disagree, which is, after all, some kind of consensus.