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Contact: Marie-Danielle Samuel email: yachaywasi@igc.org Phone: 212-567-6447 Fax : 917-529-0922
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A PANEL DISCUSSION
During the International Year of Cultural Heritage: "Cultural Heritage and Sacred Sites: World Heritage from an Indigenous perspective"
Wednesday, 15 May 2002 at 7:30 pm New York University 32 Waverly Place Room 703 - Manhattan Free admission
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION THE PERMANENT FORUM ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES The historic first annual session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues will take place at UN Headquarters in New York from 13 to 24 May 2002.
The United Nations Economic and Social Council’s establishment of the Permanent Forum is unprecedented in the international community and is the culmination of a process initiated by the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights in June 1993 during the International Year of the World’s Indigenous People. Its adoption then became one of the main objectives of the programme of activities for the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People (1995-2004).
When it meets in May 2002, the Forum will break new ground. For the first time, Indigenous peoples will participate directly in their own capacity in an official United Nations body. Indigenous Peoples have been seeking representation on the international level since they first approached the League of Nations in 1926.
The Forum, which is to be a subsidiary organ of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), consists of 16 members. Eight members nominated by world’s Indigenous organizations are appointed by the President of ECOSOC. The other eight members are nominated by Governments and elected by ECOSOC. Elections and appointments for the first term from 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2004 took place in the ECOSOC Chamber on 21 December 2001. http://www.unhchr.ch/indigenous/forum.htm
Proposed UNESCO World Heritage Indigenous Peoples Council of Experts (WHIPCOE) The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (the World Heritage Convention) was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1972. 2002 is the year of its 30th Anniversary.
Each year, more sites around the world are proposed by States Parties to the Convention to be added to the World Heritage List. The World Heritage Committee, in charge of inscribing sites as well as of examining the state of conservation of those already included on the List, was established by the World Heritage Convention. With 167 States Parties, the Convention is one of the international instruments to bring together the largest number of countries.
Many of these sites have a spiritual meaning to the Indigenous peoples living in their vicinity. To name a few (partial descriptions excerpted from World Heritage website): Australia: Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park - Formerly called Uluru (Ayers Rock - Mount Olga) National Park… The traditional owners of Uluru-Kata Tjuta are the Anangu Aboriginal people. Page 1 of 3 Peru: Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu - At 2,430 metres above sea level, on a mountain site of extraordinary beauty, in the middle of a tropical mountain forest, Machu Picchu was probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire… United States of America: Mesa Verde -A great concentration of Anasazi Indian dwellings, built from the 6th to the 12th centuries, can be found on the Mesa Verde plateau in southwest Colorado…
The justification of inscription of some of these sites on the World Heritage List came from the associations between people and place. Uluru-Kata Tjuta is recognized as a World Heritage cultural landscape demonstrating the maintenance of traditions, management of the landscape and outstanding associations between the local Indigenous communities and the environment. Machu Picchu is inscribed on the World Heritage list in recognition of its outstanding cultural and natural heritage. ACTIONS BY INDIGENOUS PEOPLES REPRESENTATIVES: A Forum of Indigenous Peoples assembled in Cairns, Australia on 24 November 2000, presented the following submission to the World Heritage Committee’s 24th session: “That the World Heritage Committee facilitate the establishment of a World Heritage Indigenous Peoples Council of Experts (WHIPCOE) pursuant to the provisions of Section 10 (3) of the World Heritage Convention, a body that would bring new competencies and expertise to complement other expert groups, to support the objectives of the World Heritage Committee in the provision of expert Indigenous advice on the holistic knowledge, traditions and cultural values of Indigenous Peoples relative to the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, including current operational guidelines.”
From the Progress Report on the Proposed World Heritage Indigenous Peoples Council of Experts (WHIPCOE) - Document WHC-2001/CONF.209/13: “At the request of the twenty-fifth session of the Bureau of the World Heritage Committee (June 2001), the WHIPCOE Working Group met in Winnipeg, Canada, 6-8 November 2001. Representatives and Indigenous experts from Australia, Belize, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America attended the workshop along with a representative of the Andean NGO Yachay Wasi, representatives of the Advisory Bodies (ICOMOS, ICCROM, and IUCN), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the World Heritage Centre.” http://www.unesco.org/whc/whipcoe/
This Progress Report and the summary of the Winnipeg WHIPCOE Workshop were presented at the 11-16 December 2001 meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Helsinki, Finland. From the report of the meeting WHC-01/CONF.208/24 page 57: “…the Committee did not approve the establishment of WHIPCOE as a consultative body of the Committee or as a network to report to the Committee. The Committee did not provide funding for a second meeting to discuss WHIPCOE as proposed in WHC-01/CONF.208/13. However, the Committee encouraged professional research and exchange of views on the subject.” http://www.unesco.org/whc/toc/mainf15.htm
In this spirit, the May 15, 2002 panel, sponsored by the NGO Committee on the UN International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples in collaboration with the New York University School of Law and with the participation of Indigenous representatives and officers from UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, will provide a forum to discuss issues relating to World Heritage and Indigenous Peoples.
Sites sacred to Indigenous peoples around the world are not limited to places already chosen by UNESCO. To widen the scope of information, the NGO Committee on the UN International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is asking the World Indigenous community to share case studies involving Sacred Sites. These studies and the report of the panel will be presented to the members of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Page 2 of 3
From a Maasai community sacred site in Tanzania to an aboriginal sacred ground in Australia, the story repeats itself…Cases are not limited to demanding respect of well known tourist places such as Machu Picchu, but also involve protest of desecrations of Indigenous burial places, such as the well publicized unearthing, display and study of Inka human remains.
The United States of America, in addition to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of November 16, 1990 (NAGPRA), is attempting to remediate the situation, but nevertheless appeals are heard from all parts of Turtle Island: the Chumash, the Passamaquoddy, the Hopi …
From President Clinton's Executive Order on Indian Sacred Sites May 24, 1996 Section 1. Accommodation of Sacred Sites (iii)"Sacred site" means any specific, discrete, narrowly delineated location on Federal land that is identified by an Indian tribe, or Indian individual determined to be an appropriately authoritative representative of an Indian religion, as sacred by virtue of its established religious significance to, or ceremonial use by, an Indian religion; provided that the tribe or appropriately authoritative representative of an Indian religion has informed the agency of the existence of such a site.
From NATIVE AMERICAN SACRED SITES AND THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Edited by Vine Deloria, Jr., The University of Colorado and Richard W. Stoffle, The University of Arizona® “Native Americans are attached to the land in some ways that others can easily understand, but also in other ways that are almost impossible to explain. The Christian-Islamic-Hebrew concept called holy land perhaps best describes where the Indian people perceive they were created. Here in their holy lands are origin mountains where the supernatural created them and gave them responsibilities for using and protecting the land. Here also are places of great religious significance to all Native ethnic group members; places best described by the Christian-Islamic-Hebrew term sacred site. However, Native Americans have places that they consider powerful or religiously significant, such as where a mythic being spent one night or where lighting struck the earth. Such places lack cognates in European and Mid-Eastern religions making it more difficult to explain to non-Native Americans that such places are truly sacred and worthy of protection and reverence by everyone.”
On the international level, a second important objective of the programme of activities for the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People which should be attained before the end of the Decade (2004) is the adoption of the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which states: PART III Article 12 Indigenous peoples have the right to practice and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs. This includes the right to maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures, such as archaeological and historical sites, artifacts, designs, ceremonies, technologies and visual and performing arts and literature, as well as the right to the restitution of cultural, intellectual, religious and spiritual property taken without their free and informed consent or in violation of their laws, traditions and customs. PART III Article 13 Indigenous peoples have the right to manifest, practice, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs and ceremonies; the right to maintain, protect, and have access in privacy to their religious and cultural sites; the right to the use and control of ceremonial objects; and the right to the repatriation of human remains. States shall take effective measures, in conjunction with the indigenous peoples concerned, to ensure that indigenous sacred places, including burial sites, be preserved, respected and protected.
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