About Standing
Standing is an open-source atlas of heritage, law and state commitments. It connects three things that are usually scattered across many websites: the condition of cultural heritage sites, what each country’s official treaty record shows, and the cases that test those commitments.
Why “Standing”?
In law, standing is the right to bring a case. In international affairs, a state’s standing is its record and reputation. The name points at both: who can act to protect heritage, and what a state has committed to.
What you can do here
- Explore sites on the map, filtered by status, threat type and region.
- Compare countries by the treaties they have joined, with a link to the official register behind every entry.
- Read the casebook: plain-language summaries of cases, with facts and analysis kept apart.
How it is checked
Every claim links to a source, and sources are tiered by how authoritative they are. Nothing is published automatically. Each entry is drafted, independently fact-checked against its sources, and then reviewed and approved by the author. Where a primary record could not be read, the entry is held back rather than filled in. The Methodology page has the full rules.
How AI was used
AI tools helped with research, drafting, fact-checking and code. They were not allowed to publish anything or decide any classification. Factual claims must be traceable to the cited sources, and the author makes every final decision.
What Standing does not claim
- It is not a prediction, a ranking of governments, or legal advice.
- A treaty record shows what a state has joined, not how well it keeps its commitments.
- It is incomplete and still growing. If you spot a mistake, please report it so it can be corrected.
- It is an independent, non-commercial student project, not affiliated with, endorsed by, or part of UNESCO, the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, Blue Shield, or any other organization whose records it cites.
Built by Harry Disley. Source code: GitHub.