KYOTO (JAPAN)
Celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Convention concerning the Protection of the
World Cultural and Natural Heritage
|
REFLECTIONS ON THE 1972 CONVENTION
|
Dr.
SOK An
Chairperson of the World Heritage Committee
Kyoto, November 6th
2012
Dear Madam Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO,
Your Excellency Mr Daisuke Matsumoto, Senior
Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology,
Your Excellency Mr Masuo Nishibayashi, Ambassador of
Japan to UNESCO, and the Chairman of the Closing Event of the Celebration of
the 40th Anniversary of WH Convention
Your Excellency Mr. Koïchiro MATSUURA, Former
Director-General of UNESCO
Dr Sen Genshitu, Good will Ambassador of UNESCO
Your Excellency Mr Francesco Bandarin, Assistance
Director-General of UNESCO for Culture,
Your Excellency Kishore Rao, Director of the World
Heritage Centre,
Your Excellency Mr Kazuyuki Hamada, Parliamentary
Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs
Your Excellency Mr Yasuhiro Kajiwara, Parliamentary
Secretary Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries,
Your Excellency Mr Seiichi Kondo, Commissioner for
Cultural Affairs
Honourable
Excellencies,
Distinguished
professors and experts,
Dear
colleagues of the World Heritage Committee,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Soshite Nihon no Mina-sama Kon-nitchiwà, (Et Bonjour à
tous nos amis du Japon)
Before anything else, I
wish to perform a pleasant duty, rather a double duty!
First, I must address the honourable representatives
of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to express my sincere and heartfelt
thanks for inviting me to be with you today to join in these festive days of
KYOTO.
My other
thoughts go to all the Member States of the World Heritage Committee, which, as
you well know, includes our host JAPAN.
These 21
states have, by consensus, bestowed on me the honour (much appreciated by my
country, the Kingdom of Cambodia!) of holding the Chairmanship of the Committee.
This took
place in the beginning of last July in Saint Petersburg, in Russian. I was absent at the time, but I was very grateful and
I want now to take the opportunity of this solemn occasion of our meeting in
Kyoto to publicly express this gratitude.
Colleagues
of the Committee,
Thank you,
with all my heart, for having provided me the particular privilege of being the
Chairman of the World Heritage Committee in 2012, the year in which the
international community celebrates the 40th anniversary of the 1972
Convention.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
Everything,
or almost everything, will be said here in Kyoto, and most certainly will be
very well said our beautiful 1972 Convention, known worldwide and warmly
celebrated for its successes. I am pleased to greet those prestigious former
presidents of the Committee, who are present here today. Experts from a large number and diversity of
backgrounds are also participating in our meetings. Their active presence and the variety of their
contributions to the debates and discussions reflect, not only CULTURAL
DIVERSITY, but also the various approaches to the field of heritage (whether
cultural or natural) that are needed to ensure sustainable agreement -
consensus without compromising!
Therefore
allow me, on this joyous day celebrating the 40th anniversary, to
share some thoughts on the 1972 CONVENTION.
Ladies and
gentlemen, for more than a decade as Chairman of the APSARA National Authority,
I and my colleagues have been able to ensure the protection, the enhancement and
the management of the Angkor heritage, a jewel on the World Heritage List since
1992. Also, as some of you may already know, between 2002 and 2008 I was
responsible with technical support from Cambodian and international experts, for
the preparation of the registration dossier of the Temple of PREAH VIHEAR.
Under the
auspices of the Royal Government and His Excellency the Prime Minister of
Cambodia, Samdech Akka Maha Sena Padei Techo HUN Sen, we undertook all the
necessary legal and administrative measures to safeguard the TEMPLE, and to
achieve its inclusion in the List in Quebec City, Canada, in July 2008, during
the 32nd session of the Committee.
However,
despite my continuous involvement in all the processes and despite my academic
training as historian, geographer and sociologist, as well as in the National
School of Administration (ENA), I cannot claim, in the presence of such
estimable experts, to discuss either the protection or the enhancement of
heritage, much less to intervene in discussions regarding the ethics and the
practice of heritage.
I shall
therefore confine myself to simple reflections on the Convention.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
In this
moment, I would like to propose a general idea that seems essential to me, and
I hope that many observers will share my view.
What seems
to me to distinguish the Convention on the Protection of the World Heritage is
the quite unique fact that it is the cultural face of the globalisation.
In this
regard, please allow me to make a short review.
Since the
end of the often relentless antagonisms, between the Eastern and Western
blocks, we have witnessed a worldwide reinforcement of the path of dialogue and
the search for consensus. Despite economic imbalances and social divides, we
once again try to focus on thinking about ways and means to "build
peace in the minds of men." It is in this context that the role of UNESCO has been
also enhanced, thanks to the efforts and the support of the Member States and
by the will of the remarkable Director-Generals who have held the leadership,
especially from the days of His Excellency Mr. Amadou Mahtar M'BOW until Her Excellency Mrs.
Irina Bokova.
As it has
been well highlighted by the analyses and the assessments presented during the
celebration of the 65th anniversary of its founding, our
International Organization has become truly global. But even more than this, it has really become an
excellent place to express visions and propose innovations, advocating the
exchange, and sharing of knowledge and know-how.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
My recalling
the universal mission of UNESCO was to better reflect the ideal of universality
that inspired the drafters of the 1972 Convention.
It is well
known that before the adoption of this Convention by the General Conference of
UNESCO during its 17th session on November 16th 1972,
interest was essentially focused on monuments and works of art. And, as a result of traumas related to World War II,
the emphasis was on the need to protect these monuments and works of art in case
of armed conflict (shown by the Hague
Convention, adopted on May 14th 1954).
In 1972, our
World Heritage Convention made significant innovations: firstly, as regards its
scope broadened cultural heritage includes not only monuments, but also ensembles (that is to
say, groups of buildings), and sites (the latter are the work of man or
the combined works of man and nature). But in my humble opinion, the most essential innovation
lies elsewhere. The Convention provides, through its philosophy and its legal form, a
NEW APPROACH to heritage. It managed to overcome the old and vivid tensions
between the two forces of representation:
- First, the
inextricable bonds (and so dear to peoples and nations, especially in third
world countries!), the bonds between cultural properties and cultural identity,
- Second,
the progressive universality of cultural properties, due to the fact that
humanity, in the ethics of UNESCO, has been and now is more and more defined by
a dynamic assembly of cultures.
Already, in
the late 60s and early 70s, UNESCO was very definitely ahead of its time. The 1972 Convention, in its very fundamental
principles, held in great account of the DIVERSITY OF CULTURES, even before a
specific Convention was achieved in 2005, giving institutional legitimacy at the
international level to this notion. This DIVERSITY is reflected in the implementation of
the Convention and can be seen by browsing the great World Heritage List built
since 1978, the year when the first inclusions were made on the occasion of the
second session of the Committee, held in Washington, and subsequently and masterfully
leading up to the present in 2012, at the 36th session of the
Committee in St. Petersburg. Across the globe, as well as in the aforementioned List,
we observe the presence of that which is essential in the eyes of the States
Parties to the Convention, namely civilizations, cultures, religions, and also
architectures, building engineering and fine arts. Despite of necessity being only a sample, the repertoire
is really REPRESENTATIVE AND UPLIFTING.
Colleagues,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
Our
Convention has another remarkable feature: its implementation has allowed many
countries to reclaim the entire historical journey that their territory followed
and to integrate their cultural diversity in the very core of their national
list of properties.
Take, for
example, the case of Tunisia, which I know better than others thanks to
Professor Azedine BESCHAOUCH, former chairman of our Committee and, since 1993,
Scientific Secretary of the International Coordination Committee for Angkor. Nowadays, Tunisia is a country known for its Arab
culture and Islamic civilization. But its list of properties reclaims Phoenician, Roman
and Christian archaeological sites; that is to say from centuries ago and
before Islam. The same situation is shared by the Arab-Muslim Libya. In this country, the proportion of sites from Greco-Roman
antiquity is even predominant.
Let’s also
consider the exemplary case of Spain. In its List appear masterpieces of Arabic architecture
and Islamic art, with Cordoba, Granada, Toledo, Seville, and so on.
I now arrive
at a third feature of our Convention. It has been able to permit (we do not say it often
enough!) a distancing from certain conflict or sensitive issues in
international relations, and also a reinforcing of the symbolic significance of
particular properties.
In this
regard, the inscription dossier of Senegal Goree Island seems to me exemplary. Goree Island is, for universal consciousness, the
symbol of the slave trade "with its procession of suffering, tears and
death." It will always be "the archetype of the suffering of the black
people through the ages" and a notorious and a tragic place in the history
of slavery between Africa and America.
Proposing its inscription in 1978, SENEGAL construed
(I quote the words of the nomination proposal), "the fundamental reasons
behind our actions regarding Goree stem from humanistic concerns. Goree was the stage for the fiercest clashes between
human beings. Modern-day Senegal wishes to turn it into A SANCTUARY OF RECONCILIATION
OF HUMAN-BEINGS THROUGH FORGIVENESS."
In this
context, dear colleagues, I would like briefly to draw your attention to the
case of the inclusion on the List of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls. Originally
requested in 1980
by the Kingdom of Jordan, which managed the old city until its occupation by
Israel in 1967, the inscription was initially inspired by the political
conjuncture, the regional conflict, and difficulties in applying the 1954
Convention.
Despite
being the object of differing claims of identity, a place of confrontations in
the name of history and memory and, a field of a fierce competition between
antagonistic representations of the past, the Old City of Jerusalem eventually came
to be inscribed outside of this context because of its outstanding universal
nature. The symbolic significance of its heritage has already been recognised
emphasizing the need to perpetuate, on that very soil, the intertwining between
the three cultures and the three heritages relevant for Judaism, Christianity
and Islam.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
If time
would allow it, we could analyze the case of the Mostar Bridge in
Bosnia-Herzegovina showing the manner in which the implementation of the 1972
Convention has inspired a remarkable approach by federal and cantonal leaders
of this country. The idea appeal to UNESCO to rebuild this historic bridge gave them hope
for its inscription. The "Bridge" was intentionally destroyed during
the civil war by extremists in the former Yugoslavia. Its reconstruction was carried out in an identical,
and if I may say so, in an authentic manner, as I was shown by Professor Mounir
BOUCHENAKI, former Deputy Director-General of UNESCO for Culture. By making the Old Bridge of Mostar a property of the
universal heritage, the World Heritage Committee has made prevail the ethics of
healing and the symbolism of reconciliation between former antagonists.
Madam Director-General,
Honourable
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
I must
certainly now reach my conclusion.
Due to the
fact that I am Cambodian, I have abstained myself from speaking of the sites inscribed
at the request of Cambodia, namely the sites of ANGKOR and the Temple of PREAH
VIHEAR TEMPLE. I will make but a single remark,
that of a Chairman evaluating the past actions of the Committee. In its wisdom, the Committee, in 1992, did not take
into account all the possible arguments that could, considering the state
Cambodia was in at the time, have justified a refusal to inscribe ANGKOR. It took into account only a single but essential factor:
to allow the preservation of this
important site for the history of humanity.
Everyone
knows the beneficial consequences of this courageous decision. Once the site was registered in October 1993, Japan
was able to organize an international conference on the conservation and
development of the Angkor site. This founding conference gave the signal for outstanding
international action, which has lasted twenty years, under the auspices of
UNESCO and co-chaired by Japan and France, whose results have been truly
spectacular.
Finally,
some concluding thoughts.
The 1972
Convention encompasses cultural, as well as the natural heritage. Others, more knowledgeable than me, will be able to
assess the great advancements achieved by the Convention, as regards the
safeguarding and management of natural properties on the List. For my part, having a little knowledge about cultural properties,
I have limited myself to them. The cultural properties inscribed in the World
Heritage List, this wonderful cultural repertoire allows, for sure, "a
mutual understanding of cultures and the mutual understanding between
nations." It can also provide the solid foundation to that which UNESCO has called
universal civilization or even "universal humanism", a
concept preferred by the great poet Aimé Césaire. I chose to refer to him here because World Heritage
also encourages dreams and poetry.
Obviously
there is no cultural heritage without culture or rather cultures. And
so we must say:
"MANY CULTURES, A SINGLE HERITAGE: THE HERITAGE OF HUMANITY."
Culture is,
in fact, the sap of nations. HE Mr. Koichiro Matsuura was kind enough to confide me
that, while visiting Kabul in 2001 he had read, in the form of graffiti
engraved on the walls of the National Museum, this beautiful maxim:
"A nation stays alive when its culture stays
alive"
So we can proclaim:
"World Heritage stays alive when cultures stay alive." Yes, thanks to the 1972 Convention, World Heritage
will stay alive. We will make sure it will. This is our oath, made here today in KYOTO!
Thank you
very much for your attention.