UNESCO

NEPAL´S POSITION PAPER

TOPIC A

DELEGATE: ALVARO SALGADO

Nepal’s position on the preservation of world heritage in Mali

Introduction

Mankind has created many different cultures, with different traditions during history, that

have grown and then disappeared, some of those civilizations being mysteries unlike

Egyptian and the Mayan, have remained and are still remembered by mankind as of today

Nepal is a country that is culturally rich, its home to different and ancient ethnics groups,

each one with its different languages and traditions. Since Nepal ratified the convention on

the protection of world cultural and natural heritage. Four properties have been recognized

as World Heritage properties: two cultural, the Kathmandu Valley and Lumbini, the

birthplace of Lord Buddha; and two natural sites, Sagarmatha National Park and Chitwan

National Park.1

Nepal’s situation

The country along with the UNESCO has been working on preserving and promoting

cultural diversity, which makes part of the nation’s identity.

1 http://www.unesco.org/new/en/kathmandu/culture/world-heritage/

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In order to promote the international year of rapprochement of cultures, the National

Federation of UNESCO clubs organized a conference in 2010.

Also the UNESCO office at Kathmandu, implemented at the region of the Upper Mustang a

pilot project to study the cultural heritage in the region. This research defined a framework

to preserve the cultural heritage in the zone and also to help the development of the

region.2The UNESCO office at Kathmandu has also been working in how to develop the

capacity of the locals to preserve their cultural Heritage. This is done through research and

policy development, but also through local grass root projects.

As a way to assist implementation of the World Heritage Convention of 1972, and the

convention for the safeguarding of the Cultural Heritage of 2003, the office at Kathmandu

has insisted on the ratification of the Convention for protection of cultural property on the

event of armed conflict. The translated document to nepali, the guidelines and all the

information about the need to protect Cultural Heritage in case of an armed conflict, has

been advocating for a further adhesion of the Country to the convention.3

- “Strengthening the Conservation and Management of Lumbini; the Birthplace of

Lord Buddha, World Heritage Property”

The project is funded by Japanese government; it’s also supported by different Nepali’s

state agencies, like the ministry of Federal Affairs, the constituent assembly, parliament

affairs and culture, and the Lumbini development trust.

2 www.unesco.org/new/en/kathmandu/culture/cultural-diversity/3 http://www.unesco.org/new/en/kathmandu/culture/intangible-heritage/

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The project takes into account the work focused in the conservation of the site’s

universal value and also to protect it from the negative impact by fostering the

conservation of the Ashoka pillar and other important monuments of the Birth Place of

Lord Buddha. Execution started July 16th of 2010 between the Nepali Government and

the UNESCO.

The main project components are:

- Conservation of archaeological remains and architectural optimization of the

shelter, including mitigation of the micro-climate and hydrological effects inside the

Maya Devi Temple

- Archaeological identification, evaluation and interpretation of Lumbini

- Review of the Kenzo Tange Master Plan for the Sacred Garden

- Establishment of an integrated management process for Lumbini 4

The World Heritage Convention

The convention defines the different natural or cultural sites that can be included into the

World Heritage Sites list.

It also establishes the duties of State Parties in protection and preservation of the World

Heritage Sites in their territory. Also encourage the Parties to include the protection of

these sites into their development plans.

Explains how the World Heritage Fund is going to be used and under what conditions

financial international aid can be provided.

4 http://www.unesco.org/new/en/kathmandu/culture/jfit-lumbini-project/

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The document sets the obligation of the States Parties, to inform regularly to the World

Heritage Committee about the state of conservation of their World Heritage Sites. These

reports are crucial for the committee’s work, because it’ll allow to help in what are the

needs of the sites to preserve them.

- Benefits of the ratification of the convention

The benefit of ratifying the Convention is that of belonging to an international

community worried about the important cultural meaning of the sites worldwide.

One of the key benefits of ratifying the convention is access to 4 million USD

yearly of the World Heritage Fund to help preserve and identify the sites. The

assistance in case of an emergency is also available to repair damage caused by

human-Made or natural disasters.5

World Heritage in Danger

Armed conflicts, wars and natural disasters are some of the major threats to World Heritage

sites. They can be classified as “ascertained” when they are proven to be imminent threat,

or “potential” when the site is facing threats that can cause negatives effects on it.

Under the convention of 1972 the World Heritage Committee can include in the list of

World Heritage in danger sites whose protection required “major operations (…) and for

which assistance has been requested”.

5http://whc.unesco.org/en/convention/

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The inscription of a World Heritage site in the danger list allows aid of the World Heritage

Fund to be given immediately. Also alerts the international community for them to start

taking measures to safeguard these important sites.

When a World Heritage Site is added to the danger list the World Heritage Committee is

able to start elaborating and adopting programs of protection along with the State party

involved.6

Mali’s situation

Timbuktu was once, one of the most important cities across the African continent. However

this great Centre of commerce, trade, knowledge and learning has been affected on brutal

attacks as Islamist sect’s push for power in northern Mali.

This country has struggled to maintain a stable democracy. In 2011 ethnic Tuareg fighters

entered into the country declaring their own republic in the region where this ancient city is

located.

Timbuktu now suffers the destruction of many of its ancient monuments and religion sites.

Four of Timbuktu’s landmarks are included on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites, but

history and heritage mean nothing to the leadership of Ansar Dine, which has destroyed at

least six above-ground mausoleums of religious figures regarded as saints.

Although the UN Security Council has adopted a resolution that threatened sanctions on

rebel fighters in northern Mali and decried the vandalism of cultural sites. It is unlikely to

end the destruction. 7

6 http://whc.unesco.org/en/158/7 http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-07-05/opinions/35488213_1_timbuktu-world-heritage-sites-mali

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The UNESCO has called upon the military forces at the country to protect heritage sites,

during all kind of attacks. "I ask all armed forces to make every effort to protect the cultural

heritage of the country, which has already been severely damaged," said the organization’s

director General Irina Bokova.

The rebels have fled three key cities in the north, including Timbuktu, a UNESCO World

Heritage site at a desert crossroads that was an ancient center of learning. Last year, the

extremists smashed up the mausoleums of ancient saints and the entrance to the 15th-

century Sidi Yahya mosque in Timbuktu, calling the sites blasphemous.8

- World Heritage Sites in the danger list at Mali

Timbuktu

Tomb of Askia9

Possible Solutions

Nepal firmly believes of importance of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural

Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, as it was created as a way of preventing the

destruction of the World Heritage sites located at the city.

This Convention was adopted at The Hague (Netherlands) in 1954 in the wake of massive

destruction of the cultural heritage in the Second World War. It covers immovable and

movables, including monuments of architecture, art or history, archaeological sites, works

of art, manuscripts, books and other objects of artistic, historical or archaeological interest,

as well as scientific collections of all kinds.

8 http://www.expatica.com/fr/news/french-news/unesco-urges-forces-in-mali-to-protect-heritage-sites_255551.html9http://whc.unesco.org/en/danger/

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Also it encourages the peace negotiations that the ECOWAS is leading with the different

rebel groups, and considers that as a way of advancing in the diplomatic solution the rebelss

should commit on respecting the historical sites under the Hague Convention for the

Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, especially articles number 4

and number 5 of the convention that establishes.

Article 4. Respect for cultural property

1. The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect cultural property situated within their

own territory as well as within the territory of other High Contracting Parties by refraining

from any use of the property and its immediate surroundings or of the appliances in use for

its protection for purposes which are likely to expose it to destruction or damage in the

event of armed conflict; and by refraining from any act of hostility, directed against such

property.

2. The obligations mentioned in paragraph 1 of the present Article may be waived only in

cases where military necessity imperatively requires such a waiver.

3. The High Contracting Parties further undertake to prohibit, prevent and, if necessary,

put a stop to any form of theft, pillage or misappropriation of, and any acts of vandalism

directed against, cultural property. They shall refrain from requisitioning movable cultural

property situated in the territory of another High Contracting Party.

4. They shall refrain from any act directed by way of reprisals against cultural property.

Article 5. Occupation

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1. Any High Contracting Party in occupation of the whole or part of the territory of another

High Contracting Party shall as far as possible support the competent national authorities

of the occupied country in safeguarding and preserving its cultural property.

2. Should it prove necessary to take measures to preserve cultural property situated in

occupied territory and damaged by military operations, and should the competent national

authorities be unable to take such measures, the Occupying Power shall, as far as possible,

and in close co-operation with such authorities, take the most necessary measures of

preservation.

3. Any High Contracting Party whose government is considered their legitimate

government by members of a resistance movement, shall, if possible, draw their attention to

the obligation to comply with those provisions of the Convention dealing with respect for

cultural property.

Nepal considers it extremely important that the UN approves the deployment of their

peacekeeping forces as a way of protecting the world heritage sites and stabilizing the zone.

Taking into account that although Mali is in state of belligerence the state is still

responsible for the protection of its own World Heritage sites, this delegation considers

important the intervention of the international community to help Mali not only sending

troops like countries as France, Belgium Nigeria are doing, but also on the reinforcement of

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its institutions, as a way of stabilizing the country and preventing any sanctions that could

be imposed to the country for the treaties it has signed and ratified.

Conclusions

From Nepal's point of view, Mali is going through a critical situation incapable of

protecting its own cultural heritage

That's why this delegation calls upon the international community to keep working for its

protection, also to support the Special Fund for the Safeguarding of Mali’s World Heritage

sites, created by the UNESCO, “The Fund will support the Government of Mali in

assessing damage at the sites, and carrying out reconstruction and rehabilitation projects for

the properties affected as soon as this is made possible by the security situation. It will also

be used to reinforce the capacities of the managers of the sites and of local communities of

Timbuktu and Gao”10

This delegation also expresses its support to the UNESCO mission that is going to be send

to the region to make a complete evaluation of all damages and determinate the most urgent

needs, as UNESCO director-general said “UNESCO will spare no effort to help rebuild the

mausoleums of Timbuktu and the tomb of Askia in Gao, and we will mobilise all our

expertise and resources to help safeguard and preserve the ancient manuscripts that testify

to the region’s glorious past as a major centre of Islamic learning. I appeal to all our

partners to work with us.”11

10http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/creation_of_a_special_account_for_the_safeguarding_of_malis_world_heritage_sites/ 11 http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/977/

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It also invites the delegations to analyze profoundly each one of the solution given in order

to reach a sustainable and effective solution

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UNESCO

NEPAL´S POSITION PAPER

TOPIC A

DELEGATE: ALVARO SALGADO

Nepal’s position towards skilled migration

Introduction

According to the WMR the number of migrants around the world has exceed the 214

million people in 2010, compared just to 191 million in 2005. If this continues increasing

during the next 20 years, the number of migrants will exceed 405 million people by 2050.

With the increasing of the migrants there’s diversity in terms of ethnic, culture, language

and religion.

Regarding destinations and origin countries, migrants come from Asia, Latin America and

Africa.

The WMR considers migration as a characteristic of today’s globalized world. And it

focuses its efforts on building capacities to enable states to respond to migration in a

sustainable way.

The policy of the WMR consists on:

- a) The relentless pace of migration and new migration challenges mean that

governments must make a concerted effort to manage migration.

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- (b) It is essential for governments to systematically engage adequate financial and

human resources to ensure that States and migrants reap the full potential of future

migration.

- (c) The risk of not putting in place adequate policies and resources is to lose a

historic opportunity to take advantage of the benefits of this global phenomenon.12

The globalization phenomenon the world is living today, has opened a window for people

to migrate where they’re best rewarded, that means the go to the most economically

advanced countries. This has been increasing by the introduction of new selective

immigration policies in many OECD (organization for economic co-operation and

development). What started as an effort to populate the huge territories of countries like

Australia and Canada has become into an international race to take the highly skilled

workers. This explains the tendency for migration rates to be much higher to the highly

skilled. Indicators revel that in the past decade the world export/GDP ratio has been

multiplied by 1.5 and the FGI/GDP ratio by three (WTO, 2004) during the period that

period of time the total if migrants living in OCED countries has been multiplied by 1.4.

But, what are the consequences of the human highly skilled brain drain in developing

countries? The skilled migrants receive higher income; natives in the receiving country can

share the immigration surplus. But however consequences are not always positive. First,

highly skilled migrants represent fiscal loss for their native country. Second, skilled and

unskilled labor complements each other in the production process. So lack of skilled labor

and too much unskilled labor (as is the case of developing countries) has a negative impact

on the unskilled workers’ productivity and leads to higher inequality in the native country.

12 http://www.sasnet.lu.se/sites/default/files/pdf/migration_year_book_2068.indd.pdf

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Third, in the world human capital is the engine of growth. If there are no skilled workers in

the home countries (usually developing countries) this will affect its economy and will stop

its growth plans increasing poorness and inequality.13

Brain Drain

There is clear evidence that the brain drain has increased drastically since the 1970s.

According to the UN forty years ago the total of highly skilled migrants traveling from the

south to the north was only of 300,000 people. But in less than 25 years this number

increased to 2,5 million people according to the US census (1990).

Studies made by the ILO showed that 40% of migrants in the Philippines are college

educated, and Mexico in 1990 was the third largest exporter of skilled migrants. Since

1990, the chief causes of the brain drain have gained in strength due to a combination of

changes on the supply side (e.g., skill-biased technological progress, human capital

agglomeration effects) that contribute to positive self-selection among migrants and of

quality-selective immigration policies on the demand-side.

The policies of immigration where first introduce in Australia and Canada in the 1980s,

before being adopted by other OCDE countries. In the US the immigration law of 1990 has

represented a big step in that direction. While the European countries like France and the

UK have recently adopted migration policies to catch the highly skilled workers’

attention.14

Migration of health workers can work as the perfect example of the negative effects brain

drain has.

13 http://web.mit.edu/is08/pdf/rapoport.pdf14 http://web.mit.edu/is08/pdf/rapoport.pdf

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Most of the health workers travel from developing to developed countries. This has led to a

shortage of health workers in developing regions. According to the IOM “low health

worker density and diminished service access and availability… correlate with increased

mortality among infants, children under five years of age and women during childbirth”.

The health workers feel attracted to the developed states because of the high pay

developing countries can’t afford.15

Skilled Migration in Nepal

When Nepal first published a Year migrations book in 2005 the number of migrant workers

was of 135.992 people. Until 2010 that number has changed drastically. According to the

department of foreign employment 240.269 Nepalis left the country.

The main challenges Nepal faces are the effective compilation of the migration data,

creation of strong migration policies, strategies and action plans; an effective legal

framework and suitable administrative structures.

Policy framework

“The Nepal government has given priority to promoting employment opportunities both at

home and abroad for Nepali youths. The Nepali state has not been able to mobilize human

resources for the development of the country. It is estimated that 30 percent of Nepal’s total

human resources remain outside the periphery of the Nepali state and among the Nepali

migrants working overseas, 75 percent are unskilled. The Three Year Interim Plan (GoN,

15 UNESCO guidelines NHSMUN- Topic A (skilled migration) Brain Drain pages 12-13

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2010) Approach Paper published in September 2010 states that the prime responsibility of

the state is “to promote employment opportunities by imparting knowledge and skills to

national human resources in line with national and international labor market.”3 It also calls

for instituting “tripartite bond among government, employers as well as workers and to

create investment friendly environment” by investing in labor management infrastructure.

However, the key challenge remains to promoting foreign employment into a systematic

and dignified sector.

The number of working age Nepalis currently unemployed is estimated at 2.5 million. The

labor participation rate stands at 83.4 percent. Of Nepal’s total population, at least 30% is

either unemployed or underemployed (i.e. people who are seasonallyor partially employed)

and 400,000 people are entering labour market every year. In this context, the Three Year

Plan has placed emphasis on:

- (a) Increasing employment opportunities within the country.

- (b) Protecting the rights of workers.

- (c) Initiating reforms in labor law and administration to increase production and

productivity.

- (d) Promote decent, safe and productive foreign employment.

- (e) Increase access of youth, women, indigenous people, people with disability,

Madhesi, Dalits, conflict affected people as well as disadvantaged and poor people

to productive employment.

- (f) Ensure social security to workers including elimination of worst forms of child

labor as per international commitments.

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The Three Year Interim Plan (GoN, 2010) takes note of a number of achievements and

progress made in relation to labor management and employment promotion. These

include the creation of Department of Foreign Employment, protection of workers’

rights and fixation of minimum wage, establishment of Foreign Employment Promotion

Board, rescue and relief operations for Nepali migrant workers facing difficult

circumstances, establishment of Migration Resource Center, appointment of Labor

Attaches in countries with large concentration of Nepali migrant workers, labor

agreements with five different countries, establishment of Foreign Employment Court

(Nyayadhikaran), formulation of the National Master Plan on Child Labor,

commencement of the process of sending industrial apprentices to Japan, rescue of

16,000 child laborers from worst forms of child labor, prevention of additional 17,000

children from entering labor market, operation of Informal Education and Daycare

Centers and investment made by non-government sector in alleviation of child labor.

The Department of Foreign Employment is currently in the process of finalizing

Foreign Employment Policy, and Strategy and Action Plans to implement the policy in

consultation with key stakeholders. The Plan has adopted the following strategy in

relation to employment promotion:

1. Provide for employment guarantee of stipulated duration in stipulated sectors while

unleashing employment opportunities and potential through employment centric

investment.

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2. Promote cordial industrial relations by protecting the rights of the workers as well as

creating investment friendly environment and strengthening Employment Information

Centre into an Integrated Employment Exchange Centre.

3. Make foreign employment safe, decent, dependable and more rewarding while

initiating qualitative reforms in the entire migration cycle.

4. Create enabling environment for self-employment by enhancing opportunities for

vocational and skill development trainings and by localizing such trainings to reach

consumers.

5. Reform child labor related policies, legislation and institutions and simultaneously

implement

The key challenge in foreign employment is to making the sector systematic and

professional one. It has been suggested that the relevant laws regulating foreign

employment should also provide for rights and obligations of migrant workers in order to

make foreign employment systematic and dignified sector. Many Nepalis are believed to

have been engaged in union and other activities of political nature because of recent violent

political crisis in Nepal. This has made many companies reluctant to hire Nepali workers.

Secondly, the orientation programs for foreign employment given by 47 agencies have not

been effective because such orientations have not helped those going for foreign

employment in terms of knowledge on the work environment, social and cultural context

and labor laws in destination countries. Thirdly, labor diplomacy has not been given the

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priority it deserves by promoting the capacity of Nepal’s diplomatic missions in the major

destination countries.”16

16http://www.sasnet.lu.se/sites/default/files/pdf/migration_year_book_2068.indd.pdf ?

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