"Beauty will save the world" — how many times have we heard this phrase? It was said by the famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, who was probably thinking of a beauty that draws not only on nature as a whole, but also on art and culture. A "high" beauty, laden with values, capable of inspiring the best in every human being. A beauty that unites, that encourages dialogue and mutual understanding. It is this conception that underpins the founding of Unesco, an acronym standing for United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organization — the United Nations organisation for education, science and culture.

When and why Unesco was founded

In the immediate post-war period, in November 1945, the Allied ministers of education gathered in London for a conference (the Conference of allied ministers of education), where they decided to create an international body, reporting to the United Nations, with the task of promoting peace and understanding between countries by fostering scientific research, the protection of cultural heritage and landscapes, and communication and information to guarantee fundamental rights for all.

The signing of the Unesco constitution adopted at the London Conference took place on 16 November 1945, but it entered into force the following year, on 4 November 1946, after official ratification by the first twenty states: Saudi Arabia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Greece, India, Lebanon, Mexico, Norway, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the Dominican Republic, the United States of America, South Africa and Turkey. In Italy, the national commission (Cni) for Unesco was established only a few years later, in 1950, after the country was admitted to the international body in 1947.

Despite defections and second thoughts on the part of some member countries over the years, today Unesco has 195 member states and 10 associate members.

Where Unesco is and how it works

Unesco's headquarters are located in France, in Paris, in a complex of three buildings designed specifically by the three designers Pier Luigi Nervi, Bernard Zehrfuss and Marcel Breuer and built by a group of five internationally renowned architects (Domenico Bonura, Renato Lo Presti, Le Corbusier, Markelius Sven and Ernesto Nathan Rogers). It is here that the key decisions regarding all World Heritage sites are made.

How Unesco is structured

Unesco has three main bodies.

The General Conference

This is the organisation's principal body: member states meet every two years to agree on policies and guidelines to be followed, establishing specific programmes and budgets. The conference also elects the members of the Executive Board and the Director-General.

The Executive Board

It meets twice a year and is made up of 58 representatives from as many member states. Its role is to prepare the work of the General Conference and to verify that the decisions taken have been carried out.

The Secretariat

This body consists of the Director-General and their staff, with the task of providing directives to put into practice the commitments undertaken by the various member states. The Director is elected by the Conference every four years. The post has currently been held, since 2009, by Irina Bokova.

The World Heritage Committee

The General Conference elects every six years the representatives of 21 member states who form the World Heritage Committee, with the task of selecting new sites to be included on the World Heritage List and of protecting them by distributing the resources of the World Heritage Fund. The Committee meets once a year to discuss various matters, including the inscription of new sites on the World Heritage List, the allocation of funds for the following year, and the examination of requests for assistance from the various states.

The characteristics of World Heritage sites

To become Unesco heritage, a site or an intangible asset must meet certain fundamental requirements, which the Committee examines at the time of nomination. The criteria are:

1. represent a masterpiece of human creative genius;
2. exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture, technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design;
3. bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilisation which is living or which has disappeared;
4. be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates a significant stage or significant stages in human history;
5. be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use or sea-use that is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment, especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change;
6. be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance;
7. contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance;
8. be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features;
9. be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals;
10. contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.

How many Unesco sites there are

The total number of World Heritage sites, as of 2017, is 1,073. With this year's two nominations bringing Italian Unesco sites to 53, our country reaches the global top position, followed only by China (52). Spain (46), France (43) and Germany (42) have more than 40 sites; India (36), Mexico (34) and the United Kingdom (31) have more than 30; Russia (28), the United States (23), Iran (22), Brazil and Japan (21) have more than 20; above 10 are Australia (19), Canada and Greece (18), Turkey (17), Poland (16), Portugal and Sweden (15), Belgium (13), South Korea, Peru, the Czech Republic and Switzerland (12), Argentina (11), and finally Austria, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Croatia (10).