ABSTRACT
Can World Heritage status contribute to achieving long-term reconciliation in multi-ethnic post-conflict environments? Using Kosovo as a case study, this chapter seeks to ask how, and if, World Heritage is currently able to contribute to genuine post-conflict reconciliation, as is so often claimed. Examining the structural inequalities that exist on the international stage regarding how the heritage of different countries is seen and experienced, we seek to pose an unasked question: Is World Heritage status really the best thing for post-conflict sites? To approach answering this, we suggest a new framework of ‘political sustainability’, which would put greater emphasis on who is making conservation and management decisions at heritage sites, and what future political implications of this could be.
