page_title: Common heritage of mankind
section_title: World Heritage Conventions
hierarchical_section_title: Common heritage of mankind / World Heritage Conventions
caption_attribution_description: View of the Bamiyan Valley with the destroyed Buddha statue.
context_page_description: Common heritage of mankind is a principle of international law that holds that defined territorial areas and elements of humanity's common heritage should be held in trust for future generations and be protected from exploitation by individual nation states or corporations.
context_section_description: A similar principle of international law holds that the world's cultural and natural heritage (as nominated for listing by nation states) must be protected by states parties to the UNESCO World Heritage Convention.
  A case study in the use of these provisions was provided by the Franklin Dam non-violent protest campaign against the construction of a dam of Australia's last wild river; they being held by the Australian High Court to provide a valid basis for legislation protecting the Franklin River. Justice Lionel Murphy wrote in that case (Commonwealth v Tasmania) about the Common Heritage of Humanity principle: "The preservation of the world's heritage must not be looked at in isolation but as part of the co-operation between nations which is calculated to achieve intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind and so reinforce the bonds between people which promote peace and displace those of narrow nationalism and alienation which promote war ... [t]he encouragement of people to think internationally, to regard the culture of their own country as part of world culture, to conceive a physical, spiritual and intellectual world heritage, is important in the endeavour to avoid the destruction of humanity."
caption: Bamian Valley - UNESCO World Heritage listed site in Afghanistan, showing destroyed Buddha statue.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "E5400", "Image Software": "E5400v1.3", "Image DateTime": "2005:07:17 15:53:31", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "152", "EXIF ExposureTime": "10/999", "EXIF FNumber": "13/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:07:17 15:53:31", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:07:17 15:53:31", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "24", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1944", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "116", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}