We are pleased to share that a new research article by UNESCO Chair Member, Julia Krzesicka-Haberko, and UNESCO Chairholder, Hanna Schreiber, has been published online in the International Journal of Heritage Studies (4 January 2026): “Where is ‘democracy’ in ‘the most democratic heritage treaty’? An investigation of the 2003 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention” (doi: 10.1080/13527258.2025.2595082).
The 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage is often described as UNESCO’s most democratic treaty, largely because it formally recognises communities as key actors in safeguarding. But what does “democracy” actually mean in this governance system—and how is it practiced, invoked, and interpreted by different actors, especially in a context of global democratic backsliding?
The article proposes a structured way to “locate” democracy in the Convention by distinguishing four meanings of the term:
- democracy as a political regime,
- democratic governance as a set of UN-supported values,
- democratisation of culture (egalitarian access to cultural goods and institutions), and
- cultural democracy (the right of communities and individuals to define and shape culture on their own terms).
Using the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, the authors trace how these understandings appear across operational, collective-choice, and constitutional levels of governance. The findings show distinct configurations: democracy tends to emerge as community practice at the operational level, as procedure in intergovernmental decision-making at the collective-choice level, and as a normative value at the constitutional level.
We hope this article will contribute to ongoing conversations on participation, legitimacy, and power in international heritage regimes. More: https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2025.2595082
