Legal documents index of the United Nations and related intergovernmental organizations

Since the early 2000s, several intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) have advanced the idea that the creative economy could be a ‘feasible development option’. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) took the lead by preparing the 2008 and 2010 Creative Economy Reports, whereas the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and UNDP executed the 2013 report. The article – based on an actor-centred institutionalism – explores the role IGOs have played in the promulgation of the ‘creative economy’ policy agenda. Through a socio-political analysis, we reveal how IGOs act and interact with each other vis-à-vis ‘creative economy’ policy agenda making. On one hand, the article seeks to highlight why and how IGOs include the creative economy within their priorities and use the concept, influence or challenge its orientations. On the other hand, it aims to examine their ability to act in common in order to globalize the ‘creative economy’ policy agenda and create new forms of cultural industries governance.

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The making and UN-making of consensus: Institutional inertia in the UNESCO World Heritage Committee

International Journal of Cultural Property ◽

10.1017/s0940739121000175 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-24

Author(s):

Claudia Liuzza

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

World Heritage ◽

The Political ◽

Intergovernmental Organizations ◽

Unesco World Heritage ◽

United Nations Educational ◽

Natural Heritage ◽

The World ◽

Ethnographic Observation ◽

The United Nations

Abstract This article examines the process of text-based negotiations surrounding the documents of the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. It focuses on revisions to the Operational Guidelines of the Convention and utilizes ethnographic observation and textual examination to show how alternative, and often the most controversial, proposals are silenced through the practice of consensus. It expands anthropological perspectives on the inner workings of intergovernmental institutions and adds to the literature on heritage regimes by providing examples from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) most prestigious intergovernmental committee. Ultimately, the article enhances our understanding of the political tensions and practical limitations of policymaking within intergovernmental organizations in the United Nations, including UNESCO.

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