Results found: 1

Search results

Search:
in the keywords: lista Pamięci Świata

Sort By:

Limit search:

Zaangażowanie Polski w działaniach UNESCO dotyczących dziedzictwa dokumentacyjnego

100%

KOMOROWSKI T.

Ochrona Zabytków

2017

issue Dodatek Specjalny. Dziedzictwo w Polsce.

183-190

It is not hard to notice that, cultural conventions aside, Poland has shown a particular interest in, and support for, UNESCO’s documentary heritage activities pursued within the framework of the Memory of the World Programme. Since 2015, these activities have also been based upon the Recommendation concerning the preservation of, and access to, documentary heritage including in digital form. Being an exceptionally important part of the legacy of humanity from the point of view of information, documentary heritage is at the same time highly susceptible to loss and, as such, forms a particularly delicate, in many senses of the word, source of memory, information, and knowledge. The awareness of its societal importance, intensified by the vivid experience of huge and irreparable losses suffered in the period of the Partitions (end of the 18th century – 1918) and, in particular, during the World War II, made Poland and Polish experts participate all the more actively in the works of the Memory of the World Programme from the moment of its inception until today. There is also another historical experience that contributes to that special involvement, namely, that of maintaining the political and cultural identity of the Polish people throughout the Partition period thanks to the preservation of their own cultural tradition and collective memory, which made it possible for Poland to regain independence after 123 years of subjugation. Poland, inter alia, hosted the 1st and 6th Meetings of the International Advisory Committee (IAC) of the Memory of the World Programme (Pułtusk 1993 and Gdańsk 2003) and their accompanying subregional consultations (Central-European, and Baltic, respectively), as well as the 4th International Conference of the Memory of the World Programme entitled ‘Culture – Memory – Identities’ (Warszawa 2011) and expert meetings in 2012 and 2014, convened by UNESCO within the framework of the Programme and the work on the Recommendation. The Polish side endeavoured to give constant support to the work on the Recommendation in which its representatives and experts were active participants. The need was recognised for an instrument that would fill an important gap in international law, supporting the development, throughout the world, of legislation and policies ensuring an improvement in the state of preservation of, and access to, documentary heritage. It would thus provide for its increased presence in the circulation of information, knowledge, and culture. The Recommendation adopted is a serious achievement of UNESCO. Albeit belonging to the domain of ‘soft law’, this document is the first and, to date, the only worldwide legal instrument that specifically addresses the issue of documentary heritage. It is also a particular success of the Memory of the World Programme, for not only did the idea and motivation for the creation of this document come from the experts collaborating within its framework but also its content reflects attitudes and concepts embodied by the Programme and presented in the groundwork document of the Programme, Memory of the World. General Guidelines to Safeguard Documentary Heritage (revised edition, 2002). The framework of those concepts had already been delineated in 1993 during the 1st IAC Meeting inaugurating the operation of the Programme. It includes a broad definition of ‘documentary heritage’ as a term encompassing objects with widely varying content and carriers, the idea of drafting the Memory of the World registers which took shape at the IAC 2nd Meeting in Paris in 1995, as well as the resolution to carry out projects designed to improve the state of preservation of, and access to, documentary heritage. In the Recommendation, apart from particular recommendations themselves, definitions deserve special attention. The term ‘document’ has been intrinsically linked to the analogue or digital informational content and carrier. Critically, in an age of digital technologies, the definition of document points out that ‘The relationship between content and carrier may range from incidental to integral’. In its turn, the definition of documentary heritage stresses its global importance and the common nature of the responsibility for it, the requirement for its full preservation and protection, and ensuring its permanent accessibility and the possibility of re-using it ‘for all’. Also the definition of ‘memory institution’ as introduced in the Recommendation is purposely of a broad and open nature: thus ‘Memory institutions may include, but are not limited to, archives, libraries, museums and other educational, cultural and research organizations’. The discussion held at the 4th International Conference of the Memory of the World Programme largely contributed to strengthening the belief that an international recommendation would meet the needs, increasingly urgent nowadays, related to the preservation of documentary heritage and ensuring its permanent and universal accessibility. During this meeting, a strong conviction could be observed that a normative instrument is urgently needed because of the fragile nature of documentary heritage and the new challenges connected with the development of digital technologies. Some of the participants recognised that the best solution in the current situation would be a ‘soft law’ type measure. The discussion was continued at the 10th IAC Meeting (Manchester, 2011) and during the Committee’s further works as well as at the experts’ meeting in Warsaw in 2012, which was convened by the Director-General of UNESCO following a resolution of the 36th session of the General Conference of UNESCO, submitted by Poland and co-sponsored by many other countries. The experts’ opinion calling for the commencement of work on the Recommendation was then shared by the UNESCO Executive Board. The next experts’ meeting in Warsaw in 2014, was already held as part of an agenda outlined in a resolution of the 37th session of the General Conference appealing for in-depth consultations on the elaboration of the draft Recommendation. In 2015, after subsequent wide-ranging consultations, the final wording of the document was determined at the Intergovernmental Special Committee meeting of experts at the UNESCO headquarters and unanimously adopted by the Member States at the 38th session of the General Conference. The registers listing particularly valuable objects of documentary heritage are important instruments allowing the Memory of the World Programme to influence social consciousness. Just like the name of the Programme itself, they may today be said to have an emblematic meaning. Due to advances in communication, exchange of information and knowledge, and the establishment of new global links, the collective memory is extended by the inclusion of awareness of different, even very distant, societies and cultures. This encourages one to speak of a common memory of the world which is obviously very varied, and whose establishment is accompanied by processes running counter these and linked, for example, with the fragmentation of knowledge. All kinds of heritage contribute to the memory of the world. Among these, the specific nature of documentary heritage lies in its special connection with the memory it reveals as information heritage par excellence. Here also lies the great potential of the registers of the Memory of the World Programme. The importance of the Memory of the World registers was quickly appreciated in Poland. In 1996, the Polish Committee for the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme was established. The most conspicuous aspect of its activity has been related specifically to these registers: the international Register, and then, since 2014, also the Polish national one. The international Register comprises heritage that meets the criterion of ‘world influence’. The diversity of the 14 items of Polish heritage found on the list is perfectly illustrated by the first three Polish inscriptions dating from the year 1999: the autograph of the epoch-making work De revolutionibus, in which Nicolaus Copernicus laid out his heliocentric theory; the autographs of musical scores and letters by Fryderyk Chopin, and the underground archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, known as the Emanuel Ringelblum Archives after the name of its initiator. The subsequent Polish inscriptions include the boards with Twenty- One Demands of Gdańsk, August 1980, together with the collection entitled ‘The birth of the Solidarity trades union – a massive social movement’. The Polish National Register of the Memory of the World Programme, that has gone through two editions so far, now comprises 22 items of special importance for Polish culture, history, and identity. The uniqueness and importance of several Polish objects found on the registers of the Memory of the World Programme become more apparent in the context of the sites inscribed on the World Heritage List, and vice versa – the knowledge of those items makes it easier to see the significance and nature of the World Heritage sites. A good example is the Archive of the Warsaw Reconstruction Office, listed in the International Register of the Memory of the World Programme, documenting the destruction of Warsaw during the World War II and its subsequent reconstruction, especially that of its Historic Centre, a World Heritage site. In its turn, the document of the Confederation of Warsaw of 1573, inscribed on the International Register, is a deed that guaranteed religious tolerance as one of the corner-stones of the political system of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Thus, indirectly, however emphatically, it points to the role the Warsaw Royal Castle had played in the political system of the old Commonwealth, and its subsequent significance for the traditions of Polish sovereignty, parliamentarianism, and democracy. This speaks volumes about the symbolic dimension of its ruin and reconstruction. In this respect the Confederation of Warsaw is just like another document, inscribed on the Polish National Register of the Memory of the World, the Constitution of 3rd May 1791 (The Government Act) adopted at the Royal Castle in Warsaw – which is one of the first modern constitutions worldwide. The document of the Confederation of Warsaw also throws light on the interpenetration and peaceful coexistence of different cultures, religions, and denominations in the former Commonwealth; a coexistence whose important traces, for instance, took the form of the Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine, jointly inscribed on the World Heritage List by the two countries. The person of Nicolaus Copernicus links the Historic Centre of Kraków and the Mediaeval Town of Toruń as World Heritage sites with the autograph of his De revolutionibus. Another document inscribed on the Polish National Register of the Memory of the World, Brevis et accurata regiminis ac status zupparum Vieliciensium et Bochnensium sub annum Christi 1518 descriptio (A Brief and Precise Description of the Administration and Conditions in the Wieliczka and Bochnia Salt Mines in the Year of Christ 1518) is directly related to a different World Heritage site – the Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines. It is a unique record of the structure and operation of one of the biggest enterprises of mediaeval and early-modern Europe. It is sometimes emphasised that the heritage of humanity needs to be treated as a whole in spite of the distinct character of the various kinds of heritage which are defined from different points of view and whose protection and management calls for different measures, methods, or legal regulations. The separate ‘parts’ of the heritage are interconnected in manifold ways, both on a practical level and in reflection upon the significance of the heritage and of its individual sites, elements, and objects. The 2015 Recommendation concerning the documentary heritage encourages such synergies ‘in order to assure further coherence of actions’. Obviously, synergy should not mean any uniformisation or blurring of the distinctions between the conventions, programmes, or principles of running the heritage lists. Instead, it should show the mutual relations and complementarity of the diverse pieces of evidence and testimonies of humanity’s various achievements and experiences. The revealing of the connections between the items of heritage accumulated on the registers, established within the frameworks of different UNESCO conventions and programmes, would certainly serve to arouse an interest in heritage, to disseminate and develop knowledge of humanity’s legacy, and to facilitate a better understanding of the world. Such presentations could also refer to other UNESCO lists or even reach beyond the limits of this organisation’s programmes. Advances in digital technology and hypertext seem to be highly conducive to initiatives of this kind.

Refine search results

1 Ochrona Zabytków

1 KOMOROWSKI T.

1 2017

Search results

Zaangażowanie Polski w działaniach UNESCO dotyczących dziedzictwa dokumentacyjnego