Papaye n° 3
Cultural
Patrimony
by Sue Williams
War
and the resulting chaos , is a major threat for the cultural patrimony of
our world .
The
international legislation designed to protect it has been strengthened , but it
can ‘t have an impact without the support of governments .
Stop
the massacre !
In
the ruins of a Serb orthodox church located in the North-West of Bosnia and
destroyed in 1995 during an offensive of the Croatian army .
« No
one can deny that giving way to the useless destruction of temples , statues and
other sacred objects is a foolish action », said Polybe, a Greek historian
of the 2nd century B.C. Not a lot of persons would disagree with him
, if we consider the concern that cultural patrimony has created (incited)
nowadays.
The
world patrimony’s list of UNESCO has recorded 630 sites in the world and this
recording is far from being exhaustive. The very notion of patrimony has been
extended to include in it, beyond great monuments, industrial and cultural
landscapes. Why? Because
today in this context of globalization, culture more than ever gives us a
feeling of identity and continuity. As the Professor Stanislaw Nahlik, an expert
in the protection of cultural possessions underlined : “the life of human
being is not eternal and generations follow generations . As temporary as his
passage on earth could be, everybody is free to leave behind him everlasting
mark of his genius under the form of an art work, a historical monument or a
cultural possession. Let’s bear in mind that relationship between
temporary thing and that thing which in itself can give to human being
and to his work, a perennial character . Vita brevis, ars longa(Life is
temporary, Art is everlasting)”. There is a universal character in the
protection of cultural possessions. “We can find striking examples in any
culture, any religion and any political system”, wrote Jiri toman, the author
of “La protection des biens culturels en cas de conflit armé” (Dart-mouth/
Ed .UNESCO,1996).
However
the destruction is even more continuing, for these very features which give to
the cultural patrimony its importance , turn it into a favored target in case of
conflict and even long after the ending of the fight. In fact, the damages and
piratings caused by the weakening
of the security services, as well of the boundaries control and of social order
can turn out to be of much more destroying effect than shell shots and rocket
shots. Horrible example can be found in articles dealing with the situation in
Iraq, Afghanistan and Cambodia.
The
Convention for the protection of cultural possessions in case of conflict(La
Haye ,1954) and its two protocols which secured by UNESCO, are presently the
sole legislative universal tool protecting the cultural possessions in case of
conflict. The Convention presents the administrative and technical to be taken
for this kind of protection and enacts “rules of conduct” designed to
countries in conflict. Namely the first protocol requires that the “concerned
states” give back to their original countries the possibly exported objects.
The second protocol was passed in March 1999 after eight years of passionate
debates.
It
establishes a new category of re-enforced protection for cultural patrimony of
exceptional importance, protected by suitable national laws, and cannot be used
for military purposes. One critical point should be mentioned, this protocol
makes provisions for sanctions in case of serious prejudices undergone by the
cultural patrimony .
Up
to now the convention has been signed by 98 countries among which 82 have
ratified its first protocol. The second protocol has been signed by only 39
countries for the time being, and none has ratified it yet. A minimum of 20
ratification is required for its validity.
“
For certain states, this convention is not a priority, explained Jan Hladik,
member of the Section of International Norms of UNESCO. A certain number of
developing countries don’t have the administrative and financial capacities to
implement the convention ; for instance the creation of military and civil
services for the protection of cultural possessions, or the necessary means to
simply translate the convention into local language(only English, French,
Russian and Spanish versions are available).If
certain states need to change their Constitution , the convention has
already planned that they can get
help from UNESCO to overcome these hindrances.”
It
still remains that La Haye Convention can have a real influence. It is
considering the destruction of cultural possessions as a war crime punishable by
courts. Thus the status of the International Penal Court for ex-Yugoslavia
states that in “the violations of laws or of war’s customs” are included
“the seizure, destruction or intentional damaging of edifices dedicated to
religion, charity, to the teaching of arts and sciences, to historical
monuments, to art and scientific works”(article 3d). The indictment of Radovan
Karadzic, a Bosniac Serb leader, and of Ratko Mladic, a commander
of the Serb army by the Court refers specifically to the destruction
sacred sites belonging to Muslims or Christians of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Therefore
the mechanisms enabling the protection of humanity’s treasures exist. The
elaboration of the second protocol related to the convention shown that such a
protection is still one the priorities of the policy makers. The next step is to
manifest their strong will to make effectively working.
source
: Unesco