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letter from Vincent Salafia to HillOfTara Yahoo Group 03/07/2008
The following email, which I received this morning from Minister
Gormley's
office, confirms what I posted regarding the UNESCO WHC
Operational
Guidelines.
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Dear Mr. Moriarty,
I have been asked by Mr. John
Gormley, T.D., Minister for the
Environment, Heritage and Local Government,
to refer further to your
recent email in connection with Tara as a possible
WHS.
In April 2008, the Minister announced a UNESCO World
Heritage
Programme for the coming years, with the objective of identifying
and
inscribing on UNESCO's World Heritage List those Irish Heritage
sites
deemed to be of Outstanding Universal Value. As you may be
aware
nominations to the World Heritage List are considered only if
a
nominated property has been included on the State Party's
Tentative
List. A tentative list is an inventory of those properties
considered
suitable of cultural and/or natural heritage of outstanding value.
Tara is not on Ireland's current tentative list.
As part of this
programme, Ireland's current Tentative List, which
dates back to 1992, will
be reviewed and a new Tentative List, will be
established with an agreed
programme of applications to UNESCO. Other
sites including Tara may be
considered in the context of this review.
It is expected to get this review
of the tentative list underway very
shortly. An independent Expert Advisory
Panel, representative of both
national and international experts, will
oversee the review. The terms
of reference for this Advisory Panel will also
include the
prioritisation of sites on the new tentative list for nomination
to
UNESCO. Local stakeholder consultation, in line with
UNESCO
recommendations for the development of tentative lists, will
be
incorporated into the review process.
The nomination and
inscription process for world heritage sites takes
approximately two years
from submission of the nomination application
to actual inscription.
I trust this clarifies the matter for you.
Yours
sincerely,
____________
Eddie Kiernan,
Private Secretary
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--- In hilloftara@yahoogroups.com,
Vincent Salafia <uatuathal@...> wrote:
>
> This, below,
is quite correct. Normal procedures would not put
Tara onto the List until
2010 the earliest. Clearly, this is not a
normal case, however, and so we are
trying to find any room we can to
create a new process of dileberation and
dispute resolution. We are
not calling for formal nomination, but for a
pre-emptive process to
safeguard the site now, while the nomination process
proceeds...now
that it has been initiated. It may well be turned down in the
end...we
cannot say until the process that the Minister initiated concludes.
We
are also asking for a formal dialogue to begin between
all
stakeholders, in accordance with the Budapest Declaration on
World
Heritage, 2002, which commits the COmmittee to
sustainable
development http://whc.unesco.org/en/budapestdeclaration/
>
> A formal application was made to the Committee today, via
Ms
Rossler, and she has passed it on to the Legal Adviser. Our move
is
supported by Bahrain, Egypt and Kenya, and we are still in talks
with
other nations, many of whom are sympathetic. We are focusing on the
21
Committee Members, but even getting to talk to all of them is
a
challenge, with so much business for them to attend to. Our main aim
is
to get a motion moved on the floor, but it is going to be hard, and
it may
have to wait until after the Meeting.
>
> I met with the President
of ICOMOS today, and he is very
sympathetic, being the man behind getting
them to stop construction of
the Dresden bridge. However, Dresden was already
a World Heritage
Site, so this is a much different animal. Can't really say
much more
publicly now, but keep us in your prayers please
>
>
Vincent
>
> Please Sign the new Save Tara UNESCO petition
>
http://www.savetarapetition.net
>
> --- On Mon, 7/7/08, seanachai51 <seanachai51@...>
wrote:
>
> From: seanachai51 <seanachai51@...>
>
Subject: [TaraWatch] UNESCO WHC Operational Guidelines
> To: hilloftara@yahoogroups.com
>
Date: Monday, July 7, 2008, 11:08 PM
>
> In reading some of the posts on this and other forums, there
seems to
> be some confusion regarding sites being nominated for
inscription as
> World Heritage Sites, which only States Parties can do,
according to
> the UNESCO WHC Operational Guidelines.
>
> http://whc.unesco. org/en/guideline s/
>
> In a department press release on April 11, 2008, Mr. Gormley
stated
> the following, "My department recently engaged Dr. Jukka
Jokilehto to
> visit the sites currently on Ireland's tentative list, as
well as
> Tara. He concluded that the Hill of Tara National Monument has
strong
> merit for inclusion in an application to UNESCO for consideration
as a
> World Heritage site and he did not see the proposed new road as
being
> an obstacle to making this recommendation. "
>
>
Note, there is no mention of a time frame for when, or even if, Tara
>
would be added to the tentative list, only that it has "strong merit
> for
inclusion". Furthermore, Minister Gormley never even uses the
> word
"nomination" , so where that rumor started is any one's guess.
> The last
time Ireland updated its tentative list was on September 28,
> 1992,
despite the fact that "States Parties are encouraged to
> re-examine and
re-submit their Tentative List at least every ten years."
>
> http://whc.unesco. org/en/tentative lists/state=
ie
>
> So the first step of the process is for a site to be added
to the
> tentative list, as "Nominations to the World Heritage List will
not
> be considered unless the nominated property has already been
included
> on the State Party's Tentative List." Furthermore, "States
Parties
> should submit Tentative Lists, which should not be
considered
> exhaustive, to the World Heritage Centre, preferably at least
one year
> prior to the submission of any nomination."
>
> http://whc.unesco. org/en/tentative list/
>
> http://whc.unesco. org/en/nominatio
nprocess/
>
> According to the WHC agenda, on Sunday, July 6th,
they announced the
> sites added to the tentative lists of States Parties
submitted as of
> 15 April 2008, in conformity with the Operational
Guidelines. The WHC
> website does not report that Ireland submitted a new
tentative list,
> with Tara included on it, which makes sense since
Minister Gormley
> didn't even express his "desire" to see Tara added to
the list until
> April 11th.
>
> Considering everything that
has to be done, per WHC operational
> guidelines, before even including
Tara on the tentative list, muchless
> nominating it, Mr. Gormley will be
lucky to get a tentative list in by
> the deadline for next year. That
means that at the very earliest Tara
> could not be nominated until 2010,
but more realistically 2011. Beyond
> that, it would take a year for the
WHC to approve the nomination for
> Tara's inscription as World Heritage
Site.
>
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