Mexico, UNESCO and heritage at risk

Given the recent situation that puts at risk the appointment of University City as a World heritage site, it is necessary to disseminate the importance of this legacy and to know what happens with the patrimonial sites at risk.

 

Mexico and UNESCO unite them with a lasting relationship. Our country had a very significant participation in this organism from the very moment of its conception and contributed to its ranks a prominent member, Jaime Torres Bodet, who contributed to its construction and consolidation.

The act of our country at UNESCO has been guided by the following conviction: As a people know their culture, they take pride in their cultural heritage and take care of their natural assets. Thus, it acquires tools and strengths to cope with all the challenges that are presented to it.

It is worth mentioning that Mexico is the country of Latin America and the Caribbean with the largest number of sites registered in the UNESCO World Heritage List, which is a source of pride but also of a great responsibility. Securing their preservation is the task of all Mexicans.

That is why, in the face of the recent situation that puts at risk the appointment of University City as a World heritage site, we need to spread the importance of this legacy and know what happens to the sites at risk.

First, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee adds the site to a list of endangered heritage following the directives of chapter II, art. 4 of the Convention on the Protection of the world Cultural and Natural heritage. There appear all the sites that present the risk of being destroyed by armed conflicts, natural disasters or the destruction of the Environment for Human cause (mass tourism, invasive constructions, etc.)

The inclusion in the list of endangered assets obliges the World Heritage Committee to develop and adopt, together with the country concerned, a programme of corrective measures and the consequent control of the state of the site, in order to return it to the list Ordinary as soon as possible. If negotiations are not successful, the committee revokes the designation as a World Heritage site. Such was the case of the Arab Oryx shrine in Oman in 2007, and the Elbe Valley in Dresden, Germany, in 2009.

It is necessary to act before reaching such a degree, and to remember the words of Jaime Torres Bodet, who, in his message for the fifth anniversary of the UN, said: "To the myth born of our anguish, oppose the truth of a solution that satisfies the human reason and that justif Ique hope in a less unforgiving future… It is not a question of abolishing rights. What urges, on the contrary, is to extend the benefit of the rights to the broadest fraction of humanity. "

 

By laureate Martínez Figueroa