Towards a Balanced Representation of World Heritage Sites: UNESCO’s Attempts and Lessons Learnt in a Global Context

Authenticity lies at the heart of the World Heritage system, yet it remains one of its most contested and politically consequential concepts. Although the 1972 World Heritage Convention does not explicitly define authenticity, the notion has become central to the assessment of Outstanding Universal Value through successive revisions of the Operational Guidelines. For much of the Convention’s early history, authenticity was implicitly understood through a material and monument-centred lens derived from the Venice Charter, privileging architectural fabric, design, and workmanship. This framing, while effective for European monumental heritage, proved ill-suited to cultural contexts in which value is sustained through living practices, spiritual meanings, and community custodianship. From the late 1980s onward, sustained critiques from non-European States Parties and scholars exposed these limitations, culminating in the Nara Document on Authenticity (1994), which affirmed cultural relativity and broadened the attributes through which authenticity may be expressed. Yet three decades later, persistent imbalances, most visibly Africa’s continued underrepresentation on the World Heritage List, raise critical questions about the extent to which conceptual advances have translated into structural change. This chapter argues that Africa has not only challenged inherited notions of authenticity but has become a key site from which the limits of the World Heritage system itself are revealed. It has not only been a participant on the side but a leader shaping the very definition of authenticity. By tracing the evolution of authenticity from the 1994 Nara to the 2025 Nairobi Outcome, the article examines how African experiences reposition authenticity as a dynamic, community-defined process and considers the implications for the future development of the Operational Guidelines and global heritage governance.