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The desire to preserve sites of global significance is enshrined in UNESCO's 1972 "Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage." According to this document, "Parts of the cultural or natural heritage are of outstanding interest and therefore need to be preserved as part of the world heritage of mankind as a whole." Those that make the cut are admitted to the prestigious World Heritage List, which entitles select sites to a wealth of resources, preservation know-how, and international renown--which one writer compared to receiving three stars in a Michelin Guide. According to the rules of the World Heritage List, however, each country interested in joining the list must "identify and delineate the different properties situated on its territory" that need to be preserved (the policy is something of a remedy for past centuries of colonial iniquity, during which colonizers had the unfortunate habit of telling the natives how to be native). To the world's dismay, Afghanistan never sought to add the Buddha statues to the list. "The Buddhas of Bamiyan were not inscribed on the World Heritage List but deserved to be," UNESCO's Director-General Kochiro Matsuura wrote, after the destruction of the Buddhas had finally been confirmed. In this case, a rogue country did not care to enter the clubhouse. Click here to connect to UNESCO's public statements on the Afghan art crisis. |