On 30 September – 4 October 2013 the International Centre of the Roerichs took part in the 15th International Conference of National Trusts “Our heritage, our future. Cultural Diversity for Responsible Development” in Entebbe, Uganda.

Members of the International National Trusts Organisation (‘INTO’) and other delegates
representing cultural and natural heritage organisations from different countries participated in the conference.

Prof. Alexey V. Postnikov, President of the ICR, represented at the Conference a detailed report dedicated to the ICR international activity. One of the main direction of this work is the popularization of the Roerich Pact ideas.

The International National Trusts Organisation (‘INTO’) occupies a unique role within the global heritage movement, bringing together natural and cultural heritage organisations from around the world, representing a constituency of well in excess of six million individual members across some 60 countries and growing. Through alliances and affiliations with other organisations sharing a common concern for the global environment, the INTO “voice” speaks for tens of millions of people globally.

INTO member organisations and INTO’s associates, affiliates and partners have pledged to work with governments and agencies worldwide to protect the world’s natural and cultural heritage now and for future generations. Conscious of their role as custodians and repositories of heritage, which is the manifestation of evolved and evolving culture, INTO member organisations have and will at all times strive to be exemplars of best practice.

THE ENTEBBE DECLARATION
CALLING FOR GLOBAL ACTION TO PROTECT AND PROMOTE
TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE HERITAGE, ESPECIALLY WITHIN
THE LEAST ECONOMICALLY DEVELOPED NATIONS

Whereas:
The overarching mission of the International National Trusts Organisation (“INTO”) is to promote the conservation and enhancement of the cultural and natural heritage of all nations for the benefit of the people of the world.

Whereas:
In furtherance of this mission, INTO has objectives, amongst others, to pursue advocacy in the
interests of conservation of cultural and natural heritage and to formulate and promote conservation best practices.

Whereas:
At the 10th International National Trusts Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, in September 2003 members of the then International Network of National Trusts and allied organisations adopted the
Edinburgh Declaration for the Improved Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage at the National and Local Levels (“Edinburgh Declaration”)

Whereas:
At the 12th International National Trusts Conference in New Delhi, India, in December 2007, on the occasion of the formal launch of INTO, the Charter of INTO was agreed, in which it was specified that one of INTO’s objectives is to advance the objectives of the Edinburgh Declaration.

Whereas:
The objectives of theEdinburgh Declaration remain vitally relevant globally but no more so than within and amongst the Least Economically Developed Nations where progress has been far too slow in achieving the necessary reforms to secure the conservation of cultural and natural heritage and to formulate and promote conservation best practices within these Nations.

AND NOTING
That UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, convened an International Congress “Culture: Key to Sustainable Development” in Hangzhou China in May 2013 at which the participants adopted the Hangzhou Declaration Placing Culture at the Heart of Sustainable Development Policies (“Hangzhou Declaration”) which is highly relevant to the concerns of INTO.

NOW BY THIS THE ENTEBBE DECLARATION
members of INTO and other delegates representing cultural and natural heritage organisations gathered in Entebbe, Uganda, and those who subsequently endorse it, both embrace the Hangzhou Declaration and reconfirm the Edinburgh Declaration whilst stressing that particular challenges facing the Least Economically Developed Nations must be overcome in order to achieve the conservation of tangible and intangible heritage.

2
With respect to tangible and intangible heritage urge the global community, including in particular its leaders, to:
(a)
Accept the importance of the propositions in the Hangzhou Declaration and act on the urgent need to implement the identified actions to ensure that heritage conservation is central to sustainable development;
(b)
Recognise that the National Trust movement has identified relevant actions, as set out in the Edinburgh Declaration, that if facilitated are consistent with the Hangzhou Declaration;
(c)
Facilitate the means, including identifying and applying the required financial resources, to enable the identified actions to be implemented;
(d)
Accept that governments, especially within the Least Economically Developed Nations, would be assisted in fulfilling their responsibilities if the role that National Trusts and other non-government organisations can perform in preserving, conserving and promoting heritage is both recognised and facilitated;
(e)
Recognise that the preservation of and freedom to express intangible heritage is an important element of human rights, particularly with respect to minority peoples and the retention of oral traditions;
(f)
Accept that the freedom to access and thereafter promote heritage, through education and other proactive means, has both societal values and human rights ramifications which should be respected;
(g)
Devise programmes which take into account the particular needs of minorities, gender balance and youth, and specific indigenous peoples’ concerns;
(h)
Endorse the importance of and so facilitate collaboration between governments, non-governmental organisations -including National Trusts and other heritage organisations
–and the corporate sector, reflecting the shared obligations of all nations and all peoples with respect to their shared inheritance;
(i)
Accept the importance of and so facilitate as a function of democratic civil society, heritage organisations, such as National Trusts, being duty bound to engage with governments, such as campaigning for the enactment of necessary heritage laws and the promulgation of appropriate heritage policies;
(j)
Act on the particular urgency to implement strategies to support the Least Economically Developed Nations in building the capacity to safeguard their heritage;
(k)
Accept that failure to take the actions recommended in this Declaration will see irreparable loss of both tangible and intangible heritage at an exponential rate.


The Human Rights context
We reconfirm that the entitlement of all people to access, understand, learn from, participate in and celebrate cultural activity and cultural creations is an inherent component of the social stability of all nations and of all peoples – the protection of cultural integrity is therefore a fundamental human right.

The destruction of culture is a fundamental breach of the principle of intergenerational equity, in that a culture, or a component of it, destroyed or diminished within the time of the current generation will deprive members of future generations of their right to their cultural inheritance.

These principles are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and have been restated and expanded upon in many Conventions and Declarations of the United Nations. We note in particular that:
Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights confirms that “every one, as a member of society ... is entitled to realization ... of the social and cultural rights indispensable to dignity and free development of personality”; Article 27 provides that: “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits”; and
Article 28 provides that “Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized”.

http://www.crossculturalfoundation.or.ug/ICNT.html