Het 2003 UNESCO Verdrag heeft twaalf ethische uitgangspunten geformuleerd, die de beoefenaars willen beschermen tegen inmenging van buitenaf. De uitgangspunten gelden echter voor iedereen die betrokken is bij borgingsactiviteiten, dus ook voor de gemeenschap zelf. De uitgangpunten geven ook richting aan het handelen van Kenniscentrum Immaterieel Erfgoed Nederland.
Het Kenniscentrum heeft de richtlijnen kort samengevat in de volgende zes punten. Daaronder vind je de originele Engelse 12 ethical principles:
- Voorop staat: wederzijds respect en wederzijdse waardering bij interacties met de gemeenschappen, groepen en individuen die zich bezighouden met immaterieel erfgoed;
- De beoefenaars bepalen zelf de waarde die het immaterieel erfgoed voor hen heeft en zijn zelf verantwoordelijk voor de borging van dit erfgoed;
- De beoefenaars worden altijd betrokken bij de ontwikkeling en uitvoering van borgingsplannen. De beoefenaars hebben altijd medezeggenschap over de borging en profiteren zelf het meest;
- Culturele diversiteit wereldwijd dient te allen tijde te worden gerespecteerd, met in borgingsmaatregelen voor immaterieel erfgoed speciale aandacht voor gelijke rechten voor man en vrouw, voor jongeren en voor etnische identiteiten;
- Het levende, dynamische karakter van immaterieel erfgoed wordt te allen tijde gerespecteerd, waarbij niemand mag worden buitengesloten;
- Alle immaterieel erfgoed, dus ook erfgoed waarover in de samenleving discussie is, wordt benaderd in een sfeer van onderling respect en dialoog. Dat wil zeggen vanuit respect voor de diversiteit van immaterieel erfgoed en voor de betrokkenen, net zozeer met respect voor anderen die dit erfgoed anders beleven en/of er bezwaar tegen maken.
(Vormen van immaterieel erfgoed die ingaan tegen internationale mensenrechtenverdragen of Nederlandse wetgeving worden uitgesloten en kunnen geen plek krijgen in het Netwerk Immaterieel Erfgoed of in de Inventaris Immaterieel Erfgoed Nederland).
Vastgesteld op 1 september 2019
Ethical Principles for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage
The Ethical Principles for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage have been elaborated in the spirit of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and existing international normative instruments protecting human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples. They represent a set of overarching aspirational principles that are widely accepted as constituting good practices for governments, organizations and individuals directly or indirectly affecting intangible cultural heritage in order to ensure its viability, thereby recognizing its contribution to peace and sustainable development.
Complementary to the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the Operational Directives for the Implementation of the Convention and national legislative frameworks, these Ethical Principles are intended to serve as basis for the development of specific codes of ethics and tools adapted to local and sectoral conditions.
- Communities, groups and, where applicable, individuals should have the primary rolein safeguarding their own intangible cultural heritage.
- The right of communities, groups and, where applicable, individualsto continue the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and skills necessary to ensure the viability of the intangible cultural heritage should be recognized and respected.
- Mutual respectas well as a respect for and mutual appreciation of intangible cultural heritage, should prevail in interactions between States and between communities, groups and, where applicable, individuals.
- All interactions with the communities, groups and, where applicable, individuals who create, safeguard, maintain and transmit intangible cultural heritage should be characterized by transparent collaboration, dialogue, negotiation and consultation, and contingent upon their free, prior, sustained and informed consent.
- Accessof communities, groups and individuals to the instruments, objects, artefacts, cultural and natural spaces and places of memory whose existence is necessary for expressing the intangible cultural heritage should be ensured, including in situations of armed conflict. Customary practices governing access to intangible cultural heritage should be fully respected, even where these may limit broader public access.
- Each community, group or individual should assess the value of its own intangible cultural heritage and this intangible cultural heritage should not be subject to external judgements of value or worth.
- The communities, groups and individuals who create intangible cultural heritage should benefit from the protectionof the moral and material interests resulting from such heritage, and particularly from its use, research, documentation, promotion or adaptation by members of the communities or others.
- The dynamic and living nature of intangible cultural heritageshould be continuously respected. Authenticity and exclusivity should not constitute concerns and obstacles in the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage.
- Communities, groups, local, national and transnational organizations and individuals should carefully assess the direct and indirect, short-term and long-term, potential and definitive impactof any action that may affect the viability of intangible cultural heritage or the communities who practise it.
- Communities, groups and, where applicable, individuals should play a significant role in determining what constitutes threats to their intangible cultural heritageincluding the decontextualization, commodification and misrepresentation of it and in deciding how to prevent and mitigate such threats.
- Cultural diversityand the identities of communities, groups and individuals should be fully respected. In the respect of values recognized by communities, groups and individuals and sensitivity to cultural norms, specific attention to gender equality, youth involvement and respect for ethnic identities should be included in the design and implementation of safeguarding measures.
- The safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage is of general interest to humanityand should therefore be undertaken through cooperation among bilateral, sub regional, regional and international parties; nevertheless, communities, groups and, where applicable, individuals should never be alienated from their own intangible cultural heritage.