The Council of Europe and the Portuguese Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage jointly organised a high-level conference “The Faro Convention: a democratic approach to cultural heritage”, that took place on 3 and 4 December 2021, in Lisbon, Portugal, in a hybrid format (with both physical and online participation).
The conference was the closing event in the framework of the Council of Europe-European Union Joint Project “The Faro Way: enhanced participation in cultural heritage” following on from the four regional seminars held in Madrid (December 2018), Maastricht (May 2019), Tbilisi (June 2021, online meeting) and Bucharest (October 2021, hybrid meeting).
It highlighted the importance of both the ratification and implementation of the Faro Convention by member States, in order to foster society’s concern about cultural heritage conservation, its (re)use and participative management.
The conference also aimed at reconsidering the respective roles of authorities and civil society by calling for shared decision-making spaces, democratic participation and the wider involvement of civil society in heritage management in a truly sustainable way.
The discussions on selected topics built upon the outcomes of the four Regional seminars, organised in the framework of this Joint project, and included the presentation of publications and other promotional materials relating to the Faro Convention, including the official launch of a new and innovative product: the Faro Convention role-playing game.
Participants at the conference - representatives of Ministries in charge of culture and heritage from the member States, international organisations, heritage communities and culture and heritage stakeholders at local, regional and national levels – were also invited to take part in several visits to heritage sites in Lisbon that illustrated how the Faro Convention principles can be taken into account in such contexts.
