Sharing the documentary heritage of humanity: disparities in distribution

The Memory of the World (MoW) Programme aims to preserve and enhance access to and raise awareness of humanity s documentary heritage. The 1992 MoW Programme is one of three UNESCO initiatives aimed at protecting the world s cultural heritage alongside the two UNESCO Conventions Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (WHC) of 1972 and the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (ICHC) of 2003. Using listings to make predominantly cultural heritage visible worldwide is an important measure of all three UNESCO Heritage Programmes, the World Cultural Heritage (WCH), the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), and the Documentary Heritage (DH). The spatial distribution of UNESCO s tangible and intangible heritage has already been investigated worldwide in academic research. Such an analysis will now be undertaken for the first time for world DH. In addition to a global perspective of spatial DH distribution, differences in the MoW Programme in terms of region and chronological development will be examined. This study aims to show how spatial disparities are visible in UNESCO s MoW Programme and argues that institutional solutions (Regional and National MoW Committees) and capacity building in preparing nominations for underrepresented countries would create more balance in the MoW Registers.