12.22.09
Public Consultation for UNESCO World Heritage List Ends Tomorrow
PRESS RELEASE | TARAWATCH | 22 December 2009
‘Public Consultation for UNESCO World Heritage List Ends Tomorrow’
The public consultation period for public comment on the proposed Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Ireland ends tomorrow. The proposed list was published on 2 November by Minister for the Environment John Gormley and includes the Hill of Tara as part of a group of sites entitled ‘Royal Sites of Ireland’.
Today, TaraWatch submitted their comment in which they support the nomination, but only on condition that the Minister immediately engage with UNESCO and initiate an Action Plan to mitigate the damage caused to the site by the M3 motorway.
The Minister initiated the public consultation in 2008, and promised to submit the List in 2009. However, instead the Minister published the List a second time, held a second public consultation, and delayed submission of the List until 2010.
The TaraWatch submission states that the Minister is in breach of Irish and EU law, human rights law, as well as the UNESCO Convention itself, by failing to take any meaningful action to protect the site.
Vincent Salafia of TaraWatch said:
“We support the nomination of the Hill of Tara to the UNESCO List, but only on condition that there is an Action Plan put in place immediately, to mitigate the damage caused by the M3 motorway.
“The Minister’s failure use his statutory powers to take decisive action to protect the Hill of Tara, since he came into office in 2007, is a breach of Irish, EU and international law, as well as of the human rights of present and future generations.
ENDS
MORE INFORMATION:
TaraWatch UNESCO nomination of Hill of Tara – 2008
Gormley published draft UNESCO Tentative List – 2 November 2009
Minister’s Tentative List Submission Form
Ministers Press Release – 17 July 2009
TaraWatch submission below
TARAWATCH SUBMISSION
TaraWatch
Suite 108
The Capel Building
Mary’s Abbey
Dublin 7
Mr John Gormley, TD
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government
Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government
Custom House
Dublin 1
22 December 2009
Dear Minister Gormley,
You wrote to TaraWatch in October 2009 and asked for our opinion on the inclusion of the Hill of Tara complex on Ireland’s Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
TaraWatch Position
Our opinion remains the same as it did when we nominated the Hill of Tara, as part of your original public consultation in 2007: the Hill of Tara is undoubtedly a site out ‘outstanding universal value’, due to both its natural and cultural aspects, as defined by the UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, and the Guidelines thereto. We support the nomination, but only on condition that the M3 motorway is re-routed outside of the proposed World Heritage Site.
In making our nomination, we relied on the UNESCO Guidelines to provide for an Action Plan, to deal with immediate threat to nominated sites, and asked you to initiate one, in co-operation with UNESCO. However, instead of doing so, and submitting Tara to the World Heritage Committee meeting in Quebec, in June 2008, you delayed the nomination process for another year, without any explanation.
Our position is consistent with that of Professor George Eogan, who you invited to sit of the Expert Advisory Panel, chaired by Lord Hankey, you set up to review Ireland’s Tentative List. Professor Eogan stated to the Panel that he believed that the integrity of the Tara complex had been severely compromised by the M3 motorway, and that Tara should not be inscribed, unless the M3 was altered.
World Monuments Fund and Smithsonian Institution Endangered Lists
In our nomination of Tara, we stated that an international panel of experts, many of whom are UNESCO delegates, already placed the Hill of Tara on the World Monuments Fund List of 100 Most Endangered Sites, due to the M3. Tara remains on that List. Since then, in February 2009, the world’s foremost museum, the Smithsonian Institution, placed Tara in the list of top 10 cultural treasures to see before they disappear.
Breach of the World Heritage Convention
Ireland signed the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in 1990, and has been under a positive duty to protect all sites in the jurisdiction, which are of outstanding universal value, regardless of whether they are on the Tentative List or not. In their 2008 book, Environmental Law, Bell and McGillivray clearly support this opinion:
“The 1972 World Heritage Convention, however, is a notable example of an attempt to use international law to protect natural features of global significance. As well as cultural treasures, the treaty aims to protect natural heritage of ‘outstanding universal value’ for aesthetic or scientific reasons. The treaty is unusual, because States are obliged to protect sites that are eventually accepted onto a ‘World Heritage List’, but are also under general obligations to protect any areas worthy of inclusion on such as list. States must keep under review heritage covered by the treaty and protect it even if it is not accepted onto the list. The added protection of being listed is that sites are eligible for assistance from the World Heritage Fund…”
All sites of outstanding universal value, regardless of whether they are on the Tentative List of not, are covered by the UNESCO Convention in Article 12:
“The fact that a property belonging to the cultural or natural heritage has not been included in either of the two lists mentioned in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 11 shall in no way be construed to mean that it does not have an outstanding universal value for purposes other than those resulting from inclusion in these lists.”
In light of this, it is clear that you are using the UNESCO World Heritage Convention as a public relations exercise, designed to make it appear that you are actually providing some real protection to the Hill of Tara. In fact, you have been legally obliged to protect Tara since your first day of office, and have abrogated that responsibility for your own political gain.
The Convention not only requires you to act to protect sites, but also requires you to give proper legal protections to all sites in the jurisdiction, which are of outstanding universal value, via legislation. Last summer, you announced that you may be including
Breach of Constitutional Duty
Justice Laffoy recognised a constitutional imperative on the part of the State, to protect the national heritage, in the Carrickmines Castle case. It is our opinion that you have breached your constitutional imperative as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, by failing to use the statutory powers that were granted you, on entering office, to give the Hill of Tara the highest level of legal protection possible. You did this because the Green Party used the Hill of Tara as a bargaining chip to enter Government with Fianna Fail, in 2007, and agreed not to interfere with construction of the M3 motorway.
Breach of EU law
Since taking office, your actions have facilitated the construction of the motorway, even to the point of defending the decision of Dick Roche to demolish the Lismullin National Monument, without performing a new Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on that section of the motorway, in the European Court of Justice (ECJ). You allowed the National Roads Authority and Ferrovial to demolish the site, despite the fact that the European Commission objected to the works. The case is currently being argued before the ECJ, and may well result in the National Monuments Act being found to be in breach of EU law, and result in large fines being paid for by the taxpayer. Work should not be proceeding on the M3 at Tara while the Court decides the outcome.
Breach of Human Rights
Your ongoing and persistent breach of the UNESCO Convention has resulted in a breach of the human rights of the Irish people, and indeed the citizens of all the world, who are being deprived of their joint cultural inheritance, in both present and future generations. This is the complete antithesis of the principle of sustainable development, and it is shocking that the Green party would subscribe to such a plan. Time and again you have tried to hide behind the decisions of previous Ministers, and the fact that a contract for construction was signed. All contracts, like the M50 tolling contract, can be renegotiated, as you are fully aware.
TaraWatch is formally charging you with various breaches of human rights in a complaint being made directly to the United Nations. We are being assisted in this complaint by the US human rights organisation, 2048. On Monday, 23 November, Matt Schwoebel, a lawyer from University of California, attempted to enter the country, to perform interviews with members of the local community, as well as campaigners, as part of the complaint process. He was denied entry when informed the authorities of his mission, and put back on a plane to the US, at the taxpayers’ expense. We now demand that your Department hold a full investigation into the matter, and also assist Mr Schwoebel in completing his complaint, when he returns.
Failure to Deliver National Monuments Bill
In October 2009, you promised to deliver the New National Monuments Bill to Cabinet before Christmas. You did not do so. In fact, the Bill was supposed to be published in 2008, following the public consultation you invited TaraWatch to participate in, in 2007. It is also our opinion that your failure to publish this Bill, as promised, is also a breach of your constitutional duty as Minister, and in breach of the UNESCO Convention.
If you proceed with the nomination of the Hill of Tara, we demand that you include the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the Natural and Cultural World Heritage in the new National Monuments Bill. In July 2009 you stated in a press release:
“The Bill may also provide for ratification of certain International Conventions including:
· The UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen and Illegally Exported Cultural Objects,
· The Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit, Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property and
· The UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.
However, you made no mention of including the UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which would offer some real legal protection to sites of outstanding universal value in Ireland. The Convention should be incorporated into Irish law. Failure to do so, is also a breach of human rights.
Conclusion
Despite all of your intentional breaches of Irish, EU and international law, you are still required, and in a position to take positive action to give the Hill of Tara the highest level of legal protection possible. We demand that you immediately engage with UNESCO, and initiate an Action Plan, to mitigate the damage caused by the M3 motorway to the site. Otherwise, it is possible that UNESCO will order that the motorway is moved, after the road is already complete, like they did at Stonehenge. Your failure to act now, even at this late stage, is likely to either increase the cost of the of mitigation measures ordered by UNESCO, or result in the Hill of Tara being rejected outright by UNESCO for inclusion on the World Heritage.
Sincerely,
Vincent Salafia