http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2009/03/08/2003437905
Losheng ‘meets’ UNESCO criteria
‘ASSOCIATIVE VALUE’: While the sanatorium is not a ‘masterpiece of
creative genius’ nor a ‘testimony to a cultural tradition,’ it does have
other valuable traits, experts said
By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Mar 08, 2009, Page 2
International Association for Integrity, Dignity and Economic Advancement
(IDEA) — a non-governmental organization with consulting status in the UN —
announced yesterday that it would help Losheng Sanatorium in its efforts to
gain UNESCO’s World Heritage site status.
IDEA’s international coordinator Anwei Law made the announcement at the end
of a two-day conference on welfare for people with Hansen’s disease — also
known as leprosy — and preservation of former leprosaria.
Located in Sinjhuang City (新莊), Taipei County, Losheng was constructed
during the Japanese colonial period to isolate people with Hansen’s disease,
which was considered highly infectious and incurable at the time.
After years of campaigning for preserving Losheng — as a plan to build a
Mass Rapid Transit maintenance depot originally required a complete
demolition of the sanatorium — the government came up with a compromise plan
in 2007 that would preserve part of the site.
After discussions and inspecting the sanatorium, participants in the
conference all agreed that Losheng qualified to apply for World Heritage
status.
“Losheng has value not only for its past, for human rights, but also for the
movement [for its preservation], the intergeneration exchanges that are
happening now,” Law said.
By “intergeneration exchange,” Law said she was referring to young students
’ involvement in the preservation campaign.
Nishimura Yukio, former vice president of International Council on Monuments
and Sites (ICOMOS), agreed.
ICOMOS is a consultative body that participates in evaluation of UNESCO’s
World Cultural Heritage nominations.
While Losheng may not be a “masterpiece of creative genius” or serve as a “
testimony to a cultural tradition,” Nishimura said “it meets the ‘
associative value’ criterion of UNESCO’s six criteria for World Heritage
sites for its connection to the human rights movement.”
He said that other sites that were listed as World Heritage sites because of
their associative value include the Hiroshima Peace Memorial that
commemorates the explosion of the nuclear bomb that led to Japan’s surrender
in World War II, the Auschwitz concentration camp and the historic center of
Warsaw — 80 percent of which was reconstructed after World War II.
While some members of the audience were concerned that Taiwan might not be
able to file the application as it is not a UN member, Nishumura said there
was a solution.
“It’s difficult to initiate [the application] from your government, but it
can be initiated by international organizations or other state parties,” he
said.
However, Nishimura also voiced his concern that the maintenance depot
construction may damage it.
“This is very important for Losheng, because if you lose part of it, you
lose the integrity,” he said, adding that the conditions of authenticity and
integrity are factors that the UNESCO would look at when reviewing
applications.
On the other hand, while expressing support for the campaign to become a
World Heritage site and saying they would help, two Council for Cultural
Affairs officials attending the conference declined to explain how the
council would help to protect Losheng’s integrity or if it would be willing
to designate Losheng as a historic site.
“We’re attending the conference as individuals who care about the issue,
not as officials,” one of them said.
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