The Contestation of Religious Heritage Through the Lens of States: Challenging Approaches and Problematic Outcomes

Before addressing the issue of contestation in relation to religious heritage, it is extremely important to examine how states deal with UNESCO‘s legal instruments in peaceful nomination processes. In this context, it is important to recognise how public interests interact with the different stages of the nomination process, starting with the Tentative List. Indeed, the Tentative List is the first legal instrument used by States Parties to propose cultural heritage sites for nomination: it is the first position that states adopt and it indicates, above all, which heritage they consider worthy of protection and which sacred values inherent in religious heritage they wish to transmit to future generations. The chapter then analyses the use of World Heritage and the List of World Heritage in Danger: in this second phase of the nomination process, the public interests selected by states in a national dimension are given a global dimension. Finally, the element of contestation is analysed as an additional and determining factor in the nomination processes. This element calls into question the neutrality of the decisions made by the states and the World Heritage Committee and offers interesting insights into the use of religious heritage.