Seventh WHC50 Seminar: Recent Developments in the International Cultural Heritage Law: Politicisation and Technological Evolution

This is the seventh seminar of the WHC@50 project, organised by Francesco Cunsolo and myself. Francesco and I are both PhD students at the University of Bologna and members of the Bologna research unit for the WHC@50 project.

The webinar is part of Una Europa's project 'WHC@50 - Forever Young: Celebrating 50 Years of the World Heritage Convention' organized to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1972 UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The seminar on 19 January will include two presentations: the first will explore and analyse the process of inscription of cultural and natural heritage in the WHL and how this process can be affected by politicisation and lobbying, proposing some potential strategies to minimise or reduce this risk. The second topic concerns the use of lethal autonomous weapon systems in armed conflicts and developments in robotic warfare. This sensitive issue, which introduces new considerations into the debate on the dehumanisation of war, is particularly relevant to the risks of intentional destruction of cultural heritage.