“Indigenous Advocacy and the Compliance Mechanisms of the World Heritage Conference: a TWAIL Studying“
Anaïs Mattez (PhD 2025)
Worldwide Journal of Cultural Property, First View, pp. 1 – 18
Printed on-line: December 2024
Summary: This text examines how Indigenous Peoples who rely on World Heritage websites for his or her tradition and livelihood can enchantment to the Committee when State Events fail to adjust to their obligations. Whereas students criticize the World Heritage Conference for the dearth of participation of Indigenous Peoples, significantly within the inscription and administration processes, the framework of the Conference additionally permits illustration and visibility. Certainly, compliance mechanisms supply alternatives for Indigenous advocates to barter Land sovereignty and environmental safety. TWAIL, which locations the worldview of Indigenous Peoples on the middle of authorized apply, is essential to understanding the interactions between Indigenous Peoples and the 1972 UNESCO Conference. TWAILers spotlight how worldwide regulation traditionally denies sovereignty rights to Indigenous Peoples. Article 6(1) echoes this absence of sovereignty. This text examines three instances wherein Indigenous advocates petition to guard Native Lands towards environmental degradations and colonization: Kakadu, Wooden Buffalo, and Uluru. In the end, the challenges of Indigenous activists of their quest to protect nature and tradition reveal that the absence of sovereignty prerogatives stays a considerable situation. Whereas the Conference gives a venue for advocacy and worldwide consciousness, Indigenous Peoples nonetheless should negotiate Land autonomy and cultural sovereignty with the State.
