The protection of cultural properties of significance to individual nations, as well as of importance to humanity as a whole, had already become an area of activity of universal international organisations during the earliest stage of their development. As one of the most significant achievements of international law in the field of cultural and natural heritage protection, the World Heritage Convention was adopted in 1972, which, under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), established the most effective system devised up to that point in regards to the protection of World Heritage as a specific form of heritage encompassing both natural and cultural heritage around the world. The purpose of this paper is to bring closer the historical context in which concepts such as cultural property and cultural heritage were developed, to clarify the significance of the basic legal instruments concerning the protection of cultural heritage and their interrelationship, as well as to present the general characteristics of the basic mechanisms organized within the framework of international legal protection provided to sites of Outstanding Universal Value by the World Heritage Convention itself, as well as the activities of the bodies established for the purpose of its implementation, most notably the World Heritage Committee.