{"id":1617658,"date":"2024-04-18T13:46:45","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T13:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=1677688"},"modified":"2024-04-18T13:46:45","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T13:46:45","slug":"unesco-world-heritage-day-is-a-celebration-of-violent-colonial-conservation-against-indigenous-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/04\/18\/unesco-world-heritage-day-is-a-celebration-of-violent-colonial-conservation-against-indigenous-people\/","title":{"rendered":"UNESCO World Heritage Day is a celebration of violent colonial conservation against Indigenous people"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thursday 18 of April marks the annual United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Day. This year however, an Indigenous rights non-profit is exposing UNESCO for the racist colonial institution that it is.<\/p>\n

Significantly, the group is calling out the colonial conservation model that sits at the heart of the UNESCO designated World Heritage Sites.<\/p>\n

On top of this, the Canary<\/em> has dug up more evidence revealing the systemic violence, displacement, and abuse of Indigenous and local communities living at a number of these sites.<\/p>\n

UNESCO World Heritage Sites<\/h2>\n

Across the world, there are currently<\/a> 1199 World Heritage Sites (WHS). UNESCO designates<\/a> WHS status for locations that are:<\/p>\n

of outstanding universal value to humanity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Crucially, UNESCO intends this to ensure conservation of world places of natural and cultural heritage. To date, natural sites make up<\/a> 266 of the World Heritage List. These amount to approximately 3.5 million square kilometres, across more than 100 countries – larger than the size of India.<\/p>\n

On 18 April every year, UNESCO and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) mark World Heritage Day.<\/p>\n

However, to mark this year’s celebrations, non-profit Survival International has published a scathing rap-sheet of human rights abuses in six of these sites. Notably, it has taken aim at UNESCO for its complicity in the illegal eviction and abuse of Indigenous people.<\/p>\n

Decolonize UNESCO<\/h2>\n

Survival’s “#DecolonizeUNESCO” report points to multiple UNESCO World Heritage Sites that are the scene of serious and continuing conservation-related rights abuses.<\/p>\n

In the report, Survival highlighted that:<\/p>\n

at least a third of the 227 sites designated as World Heritage\u201cnatural\u201d sites under UNESCO\u2019s 1972 World Heritage Convention, \u201care fully or partially located within the traditional territories of Indigenous peoples and are of great significance for their livelihoods and their spiritual, social and cultural well-being\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, it said that:<\/p>\n

instead of being celebrated as the best guardians of their territories, Indigenous peoples are paying a bitter price for having shaped and inhabited the most beautiful and important landscapes of our world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Alarmingly, Survival researchers’ on-the-ground investigations have documented a litany of violence in WHS. In Indigenous communities across Africa and Asia, they have uncovered repeated cases of torture, rape, and killings of Indigenous people.<\/p>\n

Significantly, the report lists six World Heritage Sites that occupy stolen Indigenous land. These include:<\/p>\n