Can UNESCO Accommodate Both Preservation and Human Rights?

Can UNESCO Accommodate Both Preservation and Human Rights?

Mass evictions and violence at World Heritage Sites around the world have sparked backlash against the U.N. body.

Three people walk alongside cattle grazing on a field. August 12, 2025, 2:04 PM Comment icon View Comments ( )

During a private meeting in Paris last September, an Indigenous Maasai lawyer from Tanzania encouraged leaders from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to remove northern Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area from the World Heritage List.

Despite the park’s commercial success, with visitors rising from around 679,000 in 2018 to 843,000 in 2023, Tanzania’s relocation of most of the 100,000 Maasai residents of Ngorongoro since 2021 has drawn criticism