o-o-o-Update Notice, February 2014-o-o-o
Dear friends of Patrimonio Panamá, it is now available in ICOMOS Open Archive the English version my article, “The Attributes of Outstanding Universal Value of a property considered World Heritage – The case of the Archaeological Site of Panama Viejo and Historic District of Panama (link, here).” Along with the original version in Spanish, it is available for free download, as well as for reading online. Thanks for your interest.

See, Top Ten most downloaded Authors in ICOMOS Open Archive, December 2013 - January 2014
o-o-o-End of Update Notice-o-o-o

I would like to share with you an article of mine titled, “The Attributes of Outstanding Universal Value of a property considered World Heritage – The case the Archaeological Site of Panama Viejo and Historic District of Panama.” It was published in the 7th volume of a Panamanian journal specialized in heritage, “Canto Rodado”; its articles are peer reviewed. The journal Canto Rodado is one of the many achievements of the Patronato Panama Viejo. It is published once a year, to publicize important research related to the archaeological site of Panama Viejo, and historic heritage in general.

This is the abstract of my paper:

“All the properties inscribed on the World Heritage List hold Outstanding Universal Value and are irreplaceable pieces of the cultural and natural legacy of humanity.. The Outstanding Universal Value may be apprehended by means of the justification of the criterion of outstanding universal value assured to be present in a given World Heritage property. These criteria contain the attributes of Outstanding Universal Value, whose definitive loss supposes delisting from the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, for its acronym in English). Even though the Statement of Outstanding Universal Value only is part of the proposal for inscription forms from 2005, each nomination is based upon the justification of the criteria of outstanding universal value from the beginning. The World Heritage property, Archaeological Site of Panama Viejo and Historic District of Panama was inscribed in 1997 and extended in 2003. This paper analyzes and outlines the attributes of outstanding universal value of the property according to documents concerning the statement, which are available at the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO.”

Presently, Jornal Canto Rodado No.7 will be available on the portal Dialnet at the University of La Rioja (http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/revista?codigo=16122). It is now available at the National Library System of Panama. I have made my paper available in PDF format at the Open Archive of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS Open Archive) on the following link: http://openarchive.icomos.org/1373/

As I mentioned earlier in this blog, during the 37th Session of the World Heritage Committee it was approved by Decision 37 COM 8E, Retrospective Statement of Outstanding Universal Value for the Archaeological Site of Panama Viejo and Historic District of Panama (available in English here, on the pages 2 and 4). The criteria of outstanding universal value in their new syntactic version, retain their meaning and attributes. Here's an UNOFFICIAL translation: http://patrimoniopanama.com/?p=337

In my paper, I analyzed each justification for the criteria of outstanding universal value submitted by Panama to support the property's nomination for inscription on the World Heritage List of UNESCO, for the Historic District of Panama in 1997 (Casco Antiguo), as well as for the Archaeological Site of Panamá Viejo in 2003. I considered in my analysis the conceptual basis of the justified criteria, and I identified the attributes of outstanding universal value described in the panamanian justification of the criteria. Through analysis of the criteria, the importance of the relationship of Panama City (in the Historic District and in Panama Viejo) and sea in order to sustain their attributes became apparent.

Without further ado, I invite you to read my paper. The quotation below, contains the direct link to the downloadable PDF file of my article, available in ICOMOS Open Archive:

Osorio, Katti (2012) The Attributes of Outstanding Universal Value of a property considered World Heritage – The case of the Archaeological Site of Panama Viejo and Historic District of Panama. Canto Rodado, 7 (7). pp. 1-27. ISSN 1818-2917 [Article]

I prepared the following map on a Google Maps image, using only the buffer zone boundaries and property boundaries registered by the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO (National boundaries are wider (than those inscribed) for the Historic District). As you can see, only Panama Viejo has a buffer zone registered in UNESCO's file. I highlighted both components of the single “Property” in color red, so you can clearly see that the limits of both sites together are the boundary of the whole property:

A single property: Archaeological Site of Panama Viejo and Historic District of Panama (790bis) (Panamá)

Due to the impact of the Coastal 3 (marked yellow), according to Decision 37 COM 7B.100 (see blog post http://patrimoniopanama.com/?p=271) “modified in an irreversible manner the relationship of the historic center with its wider setting”, and “Requests the State Party to submit to the 1 February 2015 a significant change to the limits as to justify a review of the outstanding universal value of the property.” For, limits a major change represents a significant change, that warrants the need to re-justify that the property has outstanding universal value, as if it were a new nomination. Decision Ends, “in the absence of the implementation of the request made in this decision, the property would be deleted from the World Heritage List at its 39th session 2015, in accordance with Chapter IV.C of the Operational Guidelines.”

I recommend reading the Decision 37 COM 7B.100 Full.

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References (Figure)

Limitations of the Buffer Zone Old Panama Archaeological Site: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/790/multiple=1&unique_number=934

Note:

Thanks to the transparency policies of UNESCO and its World Heritage Centre, all documents cited in this article of the Blog, Patrimonio Panamá are public information of open access for all around the world from UNESCO websites, and by means of the Information System of the State of Conservation (SOC), open to the public from 2012 (Click here to see related news: http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/962/).