Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in the United States

I. Definition of The Cultural and Natural Heritage

Article 1

For the purpose of this Convention, the following shall be considered as
“cultural heritage”:
monuments: architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and
painting, elements or structures of an archeological nature,
inscriptions, cave dwellings and combinations of features, which are
of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art
or science;

groups of buildings: groups of separate or connected buildings which,
because of their architecture, their homogeneity or their place in
the landscape, are of outstanding universal value from the point of
view of history, art or science;

sites: works of man or the combined works of nature and man, and
areas including archaeological sites which are of outstanding
universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological or
anthropological point of view.

Article 2

For the purposes of this Convention, the following shall be considered as
“natural heritage”:

natural features consisting of physical and biological formations or
groups of such formations, which are of outstanding universal value
from the aesthetic or scientific point of view;

geological and physiographical formations and precisely delineated
areas which constitute the habitat of threatened species of animals
and plants of outstanding universal value from the point of view of
science or conservation;

natural sites or precisely delineated natural areas of outstanding
universal value from the point of view of science, conservation or
natural beauty.

Article 3

It is for each State Party to this Convention to identify and delineate the
different properties situated on its territory mentioned in Articles 1 and
2 above.

II. National Protection And International Protection Of The Cultural And Natural Heritage

Article 4

Each State Party to this Convention recognizes that the duty of ensuring
the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission
to future generations of the cultural and natural heritage referred to in
Articles 1 and 2 and situated on its territory, belongs primarily to that
State. It will do all it can to this end, to the utmost of its own
resources and, where appropriate, with any international assistance and co-
operation, in particular, financial, artistic, scientific and technical,
which it may be able to obtain.

Article 5

To ensure that effective and active measures are taken for the protection,
conservation and presentation of the cultural and natural heritage situated
on its territory, each State Party to this Convention shall endeavor, in so
far as possible, and as appropriate for each country:

(a) to adopt a general policy which aims to give the cultural and
natural heritage a function in the life of the community and to
integrate the protection of that heritage into comprehensive
planning programmes;

(b) to set up within its territories, where such services do not
exist, one or more services for the protection, conservation
and presentation of the cultural and natural heritage with an
appropriate staff and possessing the means to discharge their
functions;

(c) to develop scientific and technical studies and research and to
work out such operating methods as will make the State capable
of counteracting the dangers that threaten its cultural or
natural heritage;

(d) to take the appropriate legal, scientific, technical,
administrative and financial measures necessary for the
identification, protection, conservation, presentation and
rehabilitation of this heritage; and

(e) to foster the establishment or development of national or
regional centres for training in the protection, conservation
and presentation of the cultural and natural heritage and to
encourage scientific research in this field.

Article 6

1. Whilst fully respecting the sovereignty of the States on whose
territory the cultural and natural heritage mentioned in Articles 1
and 2 is situated, and without prejudice to property right provided
by national legislation, the States Parties to this Convention
recognize that such heritage constitutes a world heritage for whose
protection it is the duty of the international community as a whole
to co-operate.

2. The States Parties undertake, in accordance with the provisions of
this Convention, to give their help in the identification,
protection, conservation and presentation of the cultural and natural
heritage referred to in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 11 if the
States on whose territory it is situated so request.

3. Each State Party to this Convention undertakes not to take any
deliberate measures which might damage directly or indirectly the
cultural and natural heritage referred to in Articles 1 and 2
situated on the territory of other States Parties to this Convention.

Article 7

For the purpose of this Convention, international protection of the world
cultural and natural heritage shall be understood to mean the establishment
of a system of international co-operation and assistance designed to
support States Parties to the Convention in their efforts to conserve and
identify that heritage.