The ICOMOS Scientific Symposium in Lumbini, Nepal (16–17 October 2025) featured the ICOMOS Sustainable Development Goals Working Group (SDGWG) session titled “Heritage, Peace, and Sustainable Futures: Advancing Cultural Resilience.” Held on 17 October, this session brought together scholars and practitioners who explored the transformative role of heritage in promoting peace, inclusion, and sustainability within the post-2030 development agenda.
The joint SDGWG Task Team 6 presentation by Dr. Naima Benkari, Olga Partina, Dr. Andris Kairiss, Donovan Rypkema, Dr. James Ritson, Andrew Mason, and Gabriel Caballero, “Lost in the Metrics? Critical Reflections on Cultural Indicators in the Post-2030 Agenda,”offered a critical review of culture’s place within the SDG framework. It proposed refined and inclusive indicators and argued for a stand-alone Culture Goal grounded in cultural rights, diversity, and creativity.
Dr. Andris Kairiss, in “Assessing Damage and Enhancing Resilience through Cultural Heritage Sustainability Indicators: Latvia-Based Study with Global Contexts,” presented research on adapting heritage sustainability indicators to crises and post-conflict recovery. His analysis demonstrated how such tools can measure both tangible and intangible losses, strengthen decision-making, and align with sustainable development strategies.
The paper “Localising SDG 11.4 to Leverage Heritage for Peace: Reimagining Cultural Value through SDGs 16 and 17 in Times of Conflict,”by Jana Chaudhuri, Dr. Bekeh Ukelina, Dr. Naima Benkari, Shinjini Saha, and Dr. Linda Shetabi, examined heritage as an active agent in reconciliation. Through case studies from Sri Lanka, Nigeria, India, and Hong Kong, it illustrated how community-based heritage practices reinforce trust, civic participation, and peacebuilding.
Dr. Bayan El Faouri’s “Leveraging Heritage for Peace: Integrating Culture Across the Post-2030 SDGs in the Middle East” emphasized the need to embed culture across multiple SDGs rather than confining it to a single goal. It highlighted culture’s contribution to justice, recovery, and identity reconciliation in conflict-affected regions.
In “Rooted Resilience: Gendered Perspectives on Heritage, Sustainability, and Empowerment in India”, Ananya Bhattacharya and Shalini Dasgupta explored how women sustain and innovate living traditions, acting as custodians of both ecological and cultural knowledge. Their work demonstrated how gender equity and community-led heritage management advance resilience and social cohesion.
Finally, Sofia Fonseca, Cecilie Smith-Christensen, and Faisal Abd Rahman presented “A Peace-Seeking Paradigm Shift in Cultural Tourism”, advocating a move from extractive tourism models to regenerative, community-based practices inspired by the ICOMOS Charter for Cultural Heritage Tourism (2022). They argued for treating heritage as a commons that fosters dialogue, empathy, and sustainable coexistence.
Together, these presentations illustrated how heritage serves as a catalyst for peacebuilding, empowerment, and sustainable development—affirming the SDGWG’s vision of culture as a cornerstone of resilient and just futures.
