Heritage: a future for our past. Which heritage? A Belgian experience
(2021) The Right to Heritage as a Catalyst for Sustainable Development — Location: Slovenia, Ministry of Culture (10.September.2021)
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- Abstract
- The aim of heritage preservation consists of maintaining valuable goods from the past for the present and future generations, by taking appropriate care. Immovable, but also movable and intangible heritage, serves as a support for our memory and contributes to a sustainable development of society. Citizens have a right to heritage, inscribed in art. 23 of the Belgian Constitution. This article deals more in general with the right to cultural development, but includes the right to cultural heritage. Public authorities act as guardian of this human right, including access to and enjoyment of heritage. The enforceability however is rather weak. The preservation of monuments, built ensembles, cultural landscapes and archaeological goods in Belgium is a regional competence, mainly exercised by the regional governments and their agencies; local communities have rather limited competences. In every region/community competent authorities hold the power to decide which goods deserve legal protection, regulation plays an important role in the concept of cultural heritage. The final decision about the protection of every single monument, landscape…, belonging to private and public owners, has to be taken by the competent minister, as a result of a formal procedure during which a public enquiry is organised and advices are asked for. These participation measures can’ t be considered as an inclusive approach in order to define which goods should be protected as cultural heritage. The existing “state monopoly” entails risks. A first possible risk consists of forgetting to protect certain immovable goods, e.g. at a moment their value was not recognised. In Belgium this was during many years the case for cultural landscapes and industrial heritage. During several periods heritage preservation was focussing on specific categories of heritage, paying no attention to other valuable goods. Second risk is neglection, especially when (too) many goods are protected. Heritage preservation of public and private properties entails important costs and it is not always easy to provide the necessary funding. Neglection many times leads to decay and destruction, even if enforcement is part of the legal system. Public authorities are not sufficiently aware of those risks or don’t try enough to counter them. Heritage preservation requires state protection of heritage related to all cultural identities living on its territory, and all periods of history. Erasing consciously or unconsciously pages of this history presents a real danger. The actual discussion in Belgium about how to deal with “contested heritage” forms a striking example. At this moment, political intervention, and some form of regulation, mainly concerns the restitution of collections and the place of colonial symbols in the public space. Working groups were created at several political levels in order to discuss how to deal with the subject. Participation at least gets the place it deserves for these specific subjects. The discussion is still ongoing. As far as the colonial symbols are concerned, one can only hope that a balance is found between remembering and forgetting traces of the past, between protecting and erasing. Cultural heritage is never neutral.
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de Clippele, M.-S., & Draye, A. M. (2021). Heritage: a future for our past. Which heritage? A Belgian experience. The Right to Heritage as a Catalyst for Sustainable Development, Slovenia, Ministry of Culture. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/165995