• Introduction
  
• Statement of Significance
• Goals and Objectives
• Conservation Principles
• Operational Plan
• Timetable for Modification and Review of the Plan
• Glossary
• Acronyms

“Throughout documented history, Robben Island has been associated with banishment, suffering and the subjugation of the human spirit. From the earliest days of colonial rule, it was used as a place of banishment and exile for those opposing colonial authority and those who were viewed as diseased or dangerous outcasts. What transformed Robben Island and bestowed on it a unique quality has been the triumph of the human spirit over such conditions, leading to the birth of a democratic nation. Out of conditions of extreme hardship, pain and suffering has arisen a spirit of hope and tolerance that has, in the words of former President Nelson Mandela, turned this island into a world-wide icon of the universality of human rights, of hope, peace and reconciliation. Robben Island, with its long history of the subjugation of the human spirit by means of banishment, imprisonment and suffering, has come to symbolise, not only for South Africa or even the African continent, but also the entire world, the resilience and the eventual triumph of the human spirit over enormous hardship and adversity. In so doing it has offered to a world struggling under social injustices and intolerance, the example of the indomitable nature of the human spirit.”
Quote from Statement of Significance: Nomination Dossier, 1999