Statement by Ms Juliana HOXHA, Vice-President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe
Cultural heritage in the 21st century for living better together Towards a common strategy for Europe
Thursday 23 April 2015 – Namur, Belgium
Check against delivery
Ministers,
Ms Snežana SAMARDŽIĆ-MARKOVIĆ
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear friends,
It is a great pleasure for me to address this conference on cultural heritage, and I would like to thank our hosts, the authorities of the municipality of Namur, and Mr Maxime PREVOT, the Vice-President of the Walloon Government and Minister for Heritage, for giving the Congress this opportunity.
I am involved in the political life of Tirana, the capital of Albania. I am also a Vice-President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and a member of the Albanian delegation to the Chamber of Local Authorities of the Congress.
I would like to reaffirm the Congress’ strong commitment to the preservation of cultural heritage as a way of building inclusive societies. The Congress, as a unique representative body of more than 200,000 territorial communities in 47 states of Europe, has specific proposals to make in the elaboration of a strategy on “Cultural heritage in the 21st century for living better together”, and a key role to play in putting it into practice.
Grassroots democracy is best placed to meet citizens’ needs and wishes. This also goes for our cultural heritage: the local level is well placed to manage and develop our historic towns and cities, as well as to adapt and implement national heritage policies to local requirements.
Cultural Heritage is not only about stones. Of course it is about architecture, monuments, art collections, archaeological sites and cultural routes. But it also includes shared history, dance, music, theatre, traditions, crafts or sports and other parts of culture that can be recorded but cannot be interacted with, without a vehicle for the culture. And most importantly for our purposes, it includes heritage communities that consist of people who value specific aspects of cultural heritage which they wish to sustain and transmit to future generations.
The Faro Convention or using its official title, the Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society, is an important guideline for local authorities. This is why in Resolution 381 on combating radicalisation adopted in March 2015, the Congress mentioned that it is necessary to “define and introduce policies to protect and enhance the value of the cultural heritage of different social groups through citizen participation, drawing on the Faro Convention.
I am going to briefly share with you the strategy the Congress would like local authorities to adopt in promoting cultural heritage with an aim to create more cohesive and inclusive societies: The pillars of this approach is to :
· raise awareness of the importance of cultural heritage in shaping our past and future,
· create a propitious climate by promoting active citizen participation including migrant communities and minorities in local political life;
· counter hate, exclusion and xenophobia by promoting intercultural dialogue,
· protect cultural heritage from new threats.
Firstly, we need to raise the awareness of our citizens to the richness and cultural diversity of Europe. Discovering other regions and cultures help bring people close together, creating a respectful awareness of the diversity of culture and lifestyles.
To quickly return to the intangible cultural heritage, I would like to mention the European Heritage Open Days, launched by the Council of Europe in 1991, and strongly supported by the Congress. There is no better way to discover the rich diversity of culture and tradition that we all have on our doorsteps! Last year, in Tirana, our theme was “Show your culture” and the main activities consisted of displaying a range of traditional music instruments, parade of dancers with traditional old costumes and holding a festival of dances in the Historic Centre of the city.
Secondly, Local Authorities must persevere to promote the cultural and social dimension of religion. Our challenge is to be capable of instituting a dialogue within our societies to assert the universal values upheld by the Council of Europe while ensuring that the religious cultural heritage has a place – and doing so in the spirit of an interfaith approach. The aim is to live not side by side but together.
Thirdly, the local authorities have to inform the citizens about the need to protect cultural heritage from new threats.
As you know, In Western Europe, the desecrations of Jewish cemeteries in countries such as France, the United Kingdom and Germany are mainly acts of vandalism, whether ideological or not. On 15 March 2015, some 300 graves were desecrated and gravestones tipped over and broken at the Jewish cemetery in the town of Sarre-Union in Alsace.
During the 28th session of the Congress, the members of the Congress Chamber of Local Authorities reaffirmed that Jewish cemeteries should be considered to be part of our common European cultural heritage. They adopted Resolution 379 (2015) on the responsibility of local authorities for the protection, preservation, management and maintenance of these burial sites because they are also part of local history. During the debate that was held, Abraham Ginsberg, Executive Director of the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe (CPJE), pointed to the need for inter-cultural dialogue. Mr Mendel Samama, Rabbi of Strasbourg said: “ The silent evil which is quietly destroying the fabric of our society is indifference”. I agree.
Finally, local authorities are key players in countering racism and xenophobia and encouraging greater intercultural dialogue. As Europe is becoming more and more culturally diverse, creating a respectful awareness of the cultural diversity is necessary to overcome indifference, ignorance and stereotypes.
In this matter, cultural routes, as tangible illustrations of the pluralism and diversity of European culture based on shared values, is a great means for intercultural dialogue and understanding.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you for your attention.