Written by Arturo Rey da Silva, co-chair ODHN
UNESCO gathered in Samarkand for its 43rd General Conference (30 October – 13 November 2025), in a world vastly different from the one that existed when the Organisation was founded 80 years ago, and at a moment when multilateralism and international cooperation – the very ethos of its creation – are at great risk. In 1945, UNESCO’s mission was conceived amid the ruins of war, built on the belief that peace could be achieved not only through political treaties or economic systems, but through mutual understanding sustained by education, science, and culture. The way heritage and culture were treated then reflected an image of reconstruction and protection from destruction and war, as seen in the first heritage protection treaties adopted at that time.
Today, that conviction remains, but the world the Organisation serves has completely changed. The challenges are no longer only about rebuilding cities or reconciling nations through a common heritage; they are about living on a planet in crisis, where the stability of ecosystems, the credibility of science, and the diversity of cultures are all under strain.
It was in this context in Samarkand that UNESCO convened a high-level discussion titled ‘UNESCO: what mandate for tomorrow?’. The question was an existential one: why is UNESCO still relevant and what role should it assume in the coming years, with a new mandate and a new senior management team? What does it mean now to safeguard culture and knowledge in an age of climate disruption, digital distortion, and global fragmentation? Key themes centred on strengthening youth participation, building competencies for the digital era, and upholding UNESCO’s mission to promote peace through cooperation in education, science, and culture. The panel also examined whether UNESCO continues to act as the UN’s “intellectual agency” and how its peace mandate intersects with rising expectations for more hands-on operational action.
Speakers in Samarkand returned to the essence of UNESCO’s founding principles. They reminded participants that the UN organisation was built on three interdependent pillars: the institutions that sustain dialogue, the human rights that guarantee dignity, and the shared pursuit of knowledge, science, and culture that gives those values meaning.
Yet it is this third pillar, the one UNESCO uniquely embodies, that has become both the most fragile and the most essential. As information becomes increasingly polarised and manipulated, the world needs a renewed commitment to truth, integrity, and understanding. UNESCO’s future may therefore depend on how effectively it can foster what some described as a “diplomacy of truth” as the panellists called it: a renewed trust in knowledge as a common good.
This notion speaks directly to all who work with heritage. To protect heritage, in any form, is to assert that knowledge and memory have value, and that they can unite, rather than divide, human societies.
Few domains illustrate this better than the heritage found in marine areas and the ocean. Every coastline, every shipwreck, every submerged landscape tells a story of human curiosity, exchange, travel, conflict, and adaptation to a dynamic environment. Yet the ocean is also where many of today’s global challenges converge, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, migration, and resource extraction.
UNESCO’s evolving mandate suggests that heritage linked to the sea should no longer be treated as a niche concern of archaeology or conservation, but as a vital part of how humanity understands its relationship with the planet. The ocean, after all, is both archive and mirror: it preserves the traces of our past interactions with nature and reflects the choices we make today.
For the heritage community, this calls for a subtle but significant shift: from simply documenting and preserving underwater sites, as outlined in the principles of the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, to interpreting and connecting them within broader narratives of sustainability, diplomacy, and shared responsibility.
Under this renewed vision, heritage becomes a field of connection between knowledge systems, between disciplines, and between generations. The implications for Ocean Heritage -defined as the ‘the full spectrum of tangible and intangible cultural expressions, practices, and remains that reflect human interaction with the sea across time’[1]– are profound and point to a paradigm shift in the way heritage professionals have approached the study of cultural remains of the human relationship with the ocean. Several points appear clear in this new shift and in UNESCO’s relevance in this changed world:
- Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Future heritage work must transcend boundaries between the humanities and the sciences. Archaeologists, marine biologists, historians, climate scientists, and local communities each hold different entry points to the historical data contained in the ocean. UNESCO’s future frameworks can help integrate these perspectives into cohesive approaches to marine protection and research.
- Education and Literacy: The idea of Ocean Literacy (understanding the ocean’s influence on us and our influence on the ocean) can be enriched through cultural narratives. Using heritage to teach about resilience, migration, or identity transforms abstract sustainability goals into human stories that inspire care.
- Ethics and Inclusion: As UNESCO reinforces its commitment to cultural rights, the heritage of coastal and island communities must be understood not as passive history but as active knowledge. Empowering these communities to interpret and manage their maritime heritage aligns with UNESCO’s broader focus on inclusion and equity.
- Cultural Diplomacy: The sea has long been a space of encounter, sometimes of conflict, often of exchange. Its heritage can serve as common ground for cooperation between nations, especially in areas where environmental and geopolitical interests intersect. In this sense, heritage becomes a quiet but powerful instrument of peace in an ocean space considered the last frontier of human exploration (and exploitation).
If the conversations in Samarkand revealed anything, it is that UNESCO’s future will depend less on protecting the past and more on mediating the future. The Organisation’s next chapter must connect the ethical force of culture with the precision of science, and the imagination of education with the urgency of sustainability.
This vision aligns naturally with the challenges and possibilities of the ocean. The sea does not recognise borders; it teaches interconnection by its very nature. It reminds us that stewardship requires continuity.
For those of us working in marine cultural heritage, the direction is pretty clear. The future will require us to act not only as conservators but as interpreters, educators, and collaborators, translating the lessons of the ocean’s past into tools for planetary coexistence.
In the years ahead, UNESCO’s renewed mandate, with a new Director-General at its head, will ask every cultural actor to think beyond protection and toward transformation: how can heritage illuminate the pathways to climate resilience, sustainable development, and peace?
For Ocean Heritage, the answer may lie in embracing the same principles that define the sea itself: openness, movement, dynamism, and connection. As UNESCO navigates its next horizon, Ocean Heritage offers a reminder that our shared history, much like the ocean, is vast, interwoven, and alive, and that safeguarding it is inseparable from imagining the future we hope to build together.
[1] Holly, G., Henderson, J., Rey da Silva, A., Edwards, A., Cocks, H. and Trakadas, A. (2025) Heritage in the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) and Beyond. Cultural Heritage Framework Programme Blue Paper 1. Diamond Books, Edinburgh. doi:10.2218/ED.9781836451358.
