ABSTRACT
At the global level, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is the peak body in the cultural heritage field. It works with its member states to shape attitudes to, form statements of principle about and administer conservation programmes aimed at protecting the world’s cultural diversity and heritage. Since at least the ‘Linking Universal and Local Values’ conference UNESCO ran in Amsterdam in 2003, it has promoted the view that heritage protection does not depend alone on top-down interventions by governments or the expert actions of heritage industry professionals, but must involve local communities (UNESCO 2004: 9). This reflects many factors, among which has been successful lobbying by Indigenous peoples from around the world for better representation in the World Heritage listing and management processes. By comparison, efforts to accommodate the interests of another part of ‘the local community’ - young people - have not been so concerted nor so apparently successful. This is despite the fact that 1.8 billion or 26 per cent of the world’s total population of 7 billion are under the age of 15 years (the United Nations definition of ‘children’) and another 1.2 billion, or 17 per cent of the world’s total population, are in the 15-24 years age bracket (UN definition of ‘youth’).
