Peru urges world to fight against cultural intolerance

Peru Vice Minister of Culture Luis Jaime Castillo has called on the international community to join in the fight against cultural intolerance and illicit trafficking in cultural goods, while promoting arts and cultural traditions.
The official made his call at the opening ceremony of the third Summit of South American-Arab Countries (ASPA) meeting here recently.
Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, deputy crown prince and special envoy of King Abdullah, Riyadh Gov. Prince Khaled bin Bandar and Abdulaziz Khoja, minister of culture and information attended the summit.
In his opening speech, the minister said the Arab and South American regions are considered among the ancient cradles of civilization and therefore are rich in cultural resources and heritage.
“The special heritage of our societies and countries generates opportunities and responsibilities from our respective governments, including most importantly, the recovery and preservation of our cultural heritage for the future generations,” Castillo said.
“In this context Peru proposes to ASPA member countries to include in their bilateral and multilateral cooperation agreements the need for setting a guideline, that whoever is found in possession of a protected cultural property must prove the legality of his/her possession, considering the country of origin as the rightful owner by default,” the minister asserted.
He continued: “It is also the duty of our respective governments to develop public policies and to encourage private initiatives to transform cultural property into valuable cultural resources, aiming at offering growing sectors of the population with new assets and opportunities.”
The minister thanked the Kingdom for hosting the third ASPA ministerial meeting of culture for South American and Arab countries. He also conveyed the greetings of the President of the Republic of Peru Ollanta Humala, and of the Minister of Culture of Peru Diana Alvarez-Calderon.
He stressed the importance of preserving the cultural legacy and its importance as a pillar for sustainable development.
“Culture is a living resource ready to be profited from. Thousands of years ago we offered the world intangible assets such as mathematics and tangible resources like cultivation of potato and other foodstuff,” he said.
“Our cultural wealth needs to be preserved and must be promoted in order to allow South American and Arab peoples to continue contributing to the development of humanity,” he noted.
He also cautioned that the cultural legacy of Arab and South American countries is threatened, which is why greater efforts must be exerted in order to protect it.
Wars, internal social strife, looting and the existence of a lucrative black market, he highlighted, create the conditions for a wide international trafficking in cultural goods, which cause lasting damage to the heritage of countries.
Thus, public policies and social responsibility are required to register and to preserve cultural goods, and a solid international cooperation to protect them from illegal international trafficking.
The government of Peru, he concluded, believes that ASPA can be a true platform for cultural interaction and cooperation between Arab and South American countries, embodying a true process of “culture of peace.”