The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural organization (“UNESCO”) was constitued after World War II, as an international organization with the purpose of promoting education and cultural cooperation between States and achieve peace in the world with the cooperation in the diffusion of culture, education and promoting solidarity between mankind. One of the main purposes of the UNESCO is the protection of Human Cultural and Natural Heritage that is characterized by an outstanding universal value. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, as explained in this paper, must be included in the World Heritage List to be awarded by UNESCO´s protection politics, but some actions are needed to achieve this goal.
The Governments of the States Parties in the agreement act to the UNESCO Constitution, on behalf of their peoples, declared that since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed; that ignorance of each other’s ways and lives has been a common cause of war throughout the history of mankind. The States made also clear that the wide diffusion of culture, the education of humanity for justice, liberty and peace are indispensable to the dignity of man and constitute a sacred duty which all the nations must fulfill. To achieve real peace, is not sufficient to conduct political or economic arrangements of governments; on the contrary, peace must be founded in the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind. In consequence The State Parties agreed in the unrestricted pursuit of the free exchange of ideas and knowledge. The purpose of UNESCO is to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms. To realize this purpose the UNESCO will do the following main activities: (a) collaborate in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples, (b) give fresh impulse to popular education and to the spread of culture by collaborating with State members, at their request, in the development of educational activities; (c) maintain, increase and diffuse knowledge by assuring the conservation and protection of the world’s inheritance of books, works of art and monuments of history and science, and protection of cultural and natural heritage of mankind.
The General Conference of the UNESCO, at its seventeenth session issued the “Convention for the Protection of the world Cultural and Natural Heritage” (“The Convention”) considering that the world´s cultural and the natural heritage are increasingly threatened with destruction not only by the traditional causes of decay, but also by changing social and economic conditions, taking into account that the protection of this heritage at the national level often remains incomplete because of the scale of the resources and the insufficient economic, scientific and technical capabilities of the country where the property to be protected is situated. The UNESCO realized the necessary establishment of an effective system, capable to protect the cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value; in this way, to assure legal protection to mankind´s heritage, the Convention defined a list of assets that shall be considered as ‘cultural heritage’: Monuments , Groups of buildings ; Sites . In addition, the convention defined as ‘natural heritage’ the following assets :Natural features ; Geological and physiographical formations precisely delineated areas and Natural sites . Each State Party recognizes its duty to ensure the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations of the cultural and natural heritage situated on its territory. The Colombian State accepted the Convention in 1983.
Until the year 2005 Colombia has included in the UNESCO´s “World Heritage List” five important assets: The Port, Fortresses and Group of Monuments of Cartagena (1984), Los Katios National Park (1994), The Historic Centre of Santa Cruz de Mompox (1995), The National Archeological Park of Tierradentro (1995) and The San Agustín Archeological Park (1995). Altrough this efforts have been made, since 20 years ago the Colombian Government filed a petition at the UNESCO to include the “Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta” in the World Heritage List, which has been forgiven by subsequent governments that have not given the real importance to this purpose. The “Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta” is a place where the Tairona´s culture settlement “Ciudad Perdida” is located, and is formed by unique geological and natural characteristics. Both assets have a clear outstanding universal value recognizable by the UNESCO. The attention to this petition is urgent because this human cultural and natural heritage is in danger, as fumigations to eradicate drug plantations are constantly made by Colombian government damaging the ecological system, and paramilitary forces constantly threat the “taironas” and Kogui cultures, that are established in their influence areas.
Actions are needed. Public opinion can help the Colombian purpose at the UNESCO denouncing to the international community the ecological threat caused by fumigations and paramilitary forces. Colombian mass media, non governmental organizations, political parties, legislative and administrative authorities and individual citizens can also take actions to explain to the public opinion the scope of UNESCO´s purpose related with the achievement of peace and the protection of World Heritage. In the case of The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, if Colombian public opinion takes notice on the existing legal instruments issued by the UNESCO an its close relation with peace, political decisions will be made in a close future.
Thank you for visiting my page at Angelfire. Please come back and visit again!
LINKS
Angelfire Home Pages
Free Web Building Help
UNESCO
