A/HRC/58/60 2015 earthquake in Nepal67 and the 2011 tsunami in Japan.68 For its Endangered Archives Programme, the British Library has focused on digitizing rare and fragile historical documents, manuscripts and books from regions at risk of natural disasters, conflict and environmental degradation. Backup systems and long-term storage solutions in secure, geographically dispersed locations help to prevent data loss, ensuring that digital copies remain intact, even in the event of technological failure or natural calamity. 35. Unfortunately, in the urgency to protect cultural heritage from severe threat, it may be digitalized without the critical questions being asked and without the active participation of the people concerned, who are often dispersed and focused on their own survival. Hence, urgent digitalization may preserve access to cultural heritage, but the nuances of cultural rights may be severely affected by uncritical or biased choices in the digitalization process, distorted narratives about the meaning of the heritage, and the preservation of selected aspects of the history of the place or of the heritage asset. Military personnel must be made aware of the negative consequences to be avoided or reversed to the extent possible. 36. As focus is growing on post-war restoration of cultural heritage in several parts of the world, how will digitalization be employed in a way that accurately reflects cultural heritage in all its diversity and, even more importantly, its significance for all people – in Lebanon, Ukraine or Yemen, in Gaza, or elsewhere? How can digitalization move away from a top-down approach, whereby government institutions and international experts take control away from local populations and decide which sites are to be restored and preserved and with which narrative? The cultural rights approach requires that, in all areas affected by war, the digital technologies used to restore cultural heritage follow a real participatory methodology, where locals have the first say on identifying, recognizing and expressing the importance of cultural heritage. C. Avoiding dispossession through digitalization 37. The relationship between original cultural heritage and its digital copies, including three-dimensional reproductions, must carefully be considered. While digitization offers opportunities to gain access to copies of cultural heritage, it cannot replace the transformational effect of physical access to heritage. From the outset, it should be affirmed that digitization will be no substitute for the protection of cultural heritage. Digitalized forms of cultural heritage cannot replace original human creativity. The protection of cultural heritage and digital recording and transformation must go together. Digitalization cannot be allowed to undermine the focus on preserving and protecting the original objects or expressions that constitute heritage. Digitization should never be used to justify destroying physical objects or denying their restoration or their restitution to source communities. Proposals to return only three-dimensional copies, rather than original heritage assets, to the original owners overlook the symbolic, spiritual and experiential value of engaging physically with heritage. While digital cultural heritage can enhance experiences, it should always be framed as an addition, not a replacement. 38. Decisions regarding digitalization sometimes involve multiple stakeholders and reflect power dynamics that may exclude those communities most intimately connected to the heritage. Decisions often rest with State or institutional bodies that might centralize the control thereof and marginalize diverse perspectives, sometimes even being used as a means of “cultural genocide”. In such cases, digitalization may protect the cultural heritage but threaten the right to cultural heritage, including the right of communities and individuals to own and control their cultural heritage. 67 68 GE.25-01705 See UNESCO World Heritage Convention, “Nepal’s museums re-opening post-earthquake”, 5 August 2016. See Vincente Santiago-Fandiño and others, eds., The 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: Reconstruction and Restoration – Insights and Assessment after Five Years, Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research Series (Springer Publishing, 2018). 11