IRAQ
C U LT U R A L H E R ITA G E PASSPORT CULTURAL RIGHTS
On Cultural Rights and Cultural Heritage Cultural Heritage does not exist in a vacuum. It is more than just buildings, shrines, and other traces of human existence. To understand the significance of Cultural Heritage and the traces it leaves, we need to take a step back and view Cultural Heritage within the context of humanity—its past, present, and future. From this perspective, Cultural Heritage is a subset of the larger concept of Cultural Rights, which themselves are an important component of Universal Human Rights. In this light, Cultural Heritage is more a matter of Human Rights than it is of history, aesthetics, time, or grandiosity. It is about how we have come to be in the world. The concept of Cultural Rights first appeared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, General Assembly, 10 December 1948, Article 22: “Everyone is entitled to the realization, through national effort and international co-operation, of the cultural rights, indispensable for his or her dignity and the free development of his or her personality.” Article 27 went further: “1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. 2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.” Furthermore, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 15, recognizes the right of every person in the States that signed it: 1. (a) to take part in cultural life; (b) to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications; (c) to benefit from the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author. The signatories further agree in Article 15 that: 2. … to achieve the fuller realization of this right shall include those necessary for the conservation, the development and the diffusion of science and culture. Finally, the signatory states agree: 3. to [r]espect the freedom indispensable for scientific research and creative activity. 4. [and] recognize the benefits to be derived from the encouragement and development of international contacts and co-operation in the scientific and cultural fields. As part of this wider context, Cultural Heritage at risk of destruction by war is a sensitive link between the past, present and future of cultures and communities whose relationship to the world is expressed in art, literature, architecture, particular practices, languages, and a series of other relationships that we have recognized as fundamental to understanding our role throughout time.
Cultural Rights & the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - UNHCR
UNHC R
Trying to understand the world without us in it is meaningless; we are observers of and participants in the decisions that have shaped the world. Cultural Heritage, as a part of Human Rights, can be understood, holistically, as the way in which human beings respond to the surrounding world, and vice versa. Ever since the ratification of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972), various aspects of the natural landscape have become relevant in cultural, as well as environmental, terms. However, assessing aspects of the environment in terms of their impact on culture is an embryonic field. Using definitions, agreements and scholarship from a variety of agencies and fields, particularly those relevant for regions at war, we attempt to incorporate provisions that guarantee the permanence of environmental features relevant in cultural terms.
One of the principal areas where culture meets life is water. Right to water (UN resolution 64/292, 28 July 2010)
The elements of a right to water must assure that water is adequate for human dignity, life and health, in accordance with articles 11, paragraph 1, and 12 (Committee on economic, Social and Cultural Rights – CESCR Twenty-ninth session, 2003. General Comment 15). The adequacy of water should not be interpreted narrowly by mere reference to volumetric quantities and technologies. Water should be treated as a social and cultural good, rather than primarily as an economic good. The right to water includes resource sustainability—we must ensure that the right is preserved for future, as well as present, generations.
Cultural Rights & OHCHR
The particular targeting of schools, cultural institutions, cultural symbols and cultural heritage is to be called.
The Special Raporteur for the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights has established an important link between Cultural Heritage and events of war: Gross violations of human rights during conflicts include violations of economic, social and cultural rights. The particular targeting of schools, cultural institutions, cultural symbols and cultural heritage during wartime is to be recalled. Moreover, insofar as the broader and cultural norms also play a role in enabling systematic violations of human rights, their role must also be addressed.
Iraq´s Cultural Heritage in the international context Ratification in 1967 of the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict with Regulations for the Execution of the Convention (1954).
cultu ral heritage Acceptance in 1974 of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972). Acceptance in 1973 of the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970).
Ratification in 2010 of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural (2003).
Iraq´s legal architecture in Cultural Heritage Law No. 55 of 2002 For the Antiquities & Heritage of Iraq
Law No. 55 seeks to record, study, restore, enable access and promote the Cultural Heritage of Iraq. This is an endeavor shared by a number of institutions and bodies such as the Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities, the State Board of Antiquity and Heritage, the Archaeological Authority, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Waqf Religious Affairs, among others. This law includes provisions establishing penalties, restrictions, licensing, coordination, and responsibilities among institutions and individuals in the field of Cultural Heritage. It also serves as an important reminder of activities that should NOT occur in the heritage field.
On Transitional Justice The linkage between Cultural Heritage and Transitional Justice, as juxtaposed with human rights and memorialization, offers tremendous possibilities for Iraq´s Cultural Heritage. Transitional Justice offers a legal model that allows peoples to transition from troubled pasts to improved stages of social life. It does so by adopting transitional judicial and civil measures that reframe the legacies of human rights violations, injustice, exclusion, and dilemmas at the moral, legal and political levels. The legal framework addresses five major areas: 1) criminal prosecutions; 2) truth commissions; 3) reparations programmes; 4) security system reform; and 5) memorialization. Using Transitional Justice to rebuild trust and peace, and as a result, communities, offers a laboratory in which emerging communities can come to terms with violent pasts.
There are no formulas for Transitional Justice, just as there are no formulas to define what triggers conflict. Transitional Justice is a flexible platform designed to provide alternatives to the dead end created by war and conflict. Transitional Justice must be specifically tailored for each case to which it is applied. A Transitional Justice framework for Iraq accepts both its troubled present and past, while setting conditions for a feasible future. The framework for Iraq also offers a platform for a transition period where non-state actors can spearhead the development and sustainability of Cultural Heritage in Iraq.
TRANSITIONAL MANAGEMENT HERITAGE PLAN HERITAGE
CULTURE
PERPETRATORS
HUMAN RIGHTS
FINANCE
TRANSITION
VICTIMS
MEMORIALIZATION
DIPLOMACY
Legal Provisions The Cultural Heritage system has established a number of legal provisions at the international level, as well as at the national level. Some of those provisions are: • Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict with Regulations for the Execution of the Convention in 1954. • Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural in 2003, Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1972. • Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property in 1970.
At the national level, Law No. 55 of 2002 For the Antiquities and Heritage of Iraq establish the framework within which Iraq´s Cultural Heritage is located.
Implementation Tools Transitional Management Heritage Plan (TMHP) is a planning tool that combines the principles of Cultural Heritage with the provisions established by Transitional Justice. The objective of engineering this new process is to give Cultural Heritage additional roles to play during the process of war and to enlarge the discussion of what is relevant in light of the experience of victims and perpetrators, and what is relevant with respect to human rights and the memorialization of war.
Strategies International Aid Civil Society involvement Current and future programmes and projects Prioritization Diversity Integration Citizenship participation Social cohesion
Mar Touma Syrian orthodox church Latitude: 36째20'28.71''N Longitude: 43째07'31.1''E
al-Nuri Mosque and Minaret of al-Habda Latitude: 36째20'34.55''N Longitude: 43째07'37.14''E
IRAQ