DISCLAIMER: As Member States provide national legislations,GENERAL hyperlinks and LAWexplanatory FOR notes CULTURE (if any), UNESCO does not guarantee their accuracy, nor their up-dating on this web site, and is not liable for any incorrect information. COPYRIGHT: All rights reserved.This information may be used only for research, educational, legal and non- commercial purposes, with acknowledgement of UNESCO Cultural Heritage Laws Database as the source (© UNESCO). LAW 397 OF 1997 By way of which articles 70, 71 and 72 are developed and all other articles in agreement with the Political Constitution, and regulations are enacted on Cultural Heritage, on culture promotion and incentives, the Ministry of Culture is created and some offices are relocated. REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA ANDRÉS PASTRANA ARANGO President ROMULO GONZALEZ TRUJILLO Ministry of Justice and Laws 1 DISCLAIMER: As Member States provide national legislations, hyperlinks and explanatory notes (if any), UNESCO does not guarantee their accuracy, nor their up-dating on this web site, and is not liable for any incorrect information. COPYRIGHT:LAW All right 397s reserved.This OF 1997 information may be used only for research, educational, legal and non- commercial purposes, with acknowledgement of UNESCO Cultural Heritage Laws Database as the source (© UNESCO). (August 7) By way of which articles 70, 71 and 72 are developed and all other articles in agreement with the Political Constitution, and regulations are enacted on Cultural Heritage, on culture promotion and incentives , the Ministry of Culture is created and some offices are relocated. The Congress of Colombia DECREES: TITLE I Fundamental Principles and definitions Article 1. About the fundamental principles and definitions of this law. This law is based on the following fundamental principles and definitions: 1. Culture is the set of distinctive, spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterize human beings and that encompass more than arts and writings, i.e. lifestyles, human rights, value systems, traditions and beliefs. 2. Culture, in its different expressions, is the basis of nationality and activity intrinsic to Colombian society as a whole, as a process generated individually and collectively by Colombians. These expressions constitute an integral part of Colombian culture and identity. 3. The State shall drive and shall incentive cultural processes, projects and activities in a framework of recognition and respect for cultural diversity and variety of Colombia as a Nation. 4. In no case shall the State censure the form, the ideological and the artistic content of cultural events and projects. 5. It is the State and people’s obligation to value, to protect and to disseminate the Nation’s Cultural Heritage. 6. The State guarantees ethnic and linguistic groups, black and “raizal” (grass-root) communities and indigenous groups the right to preserve, enrich and disseminate their identity and cultural heritage, to generate knowledge thereof according to their own traditions and to benefit from an education that ensures these rights. The Colombian State recognizes the specificity of the Caribbean culture and they shall provide special protection to its various expressions. 7. The State shall protect Spanish as Colombia’s official language and the languages of indigenous groups and black and “raizal” communities in their territories. Similarly, they shall drive the strengthening of the Amerindian and Creole languages spoken in the national territory and they shall commit to respecting and recognizing them throughout the rest of society. 8. Economic and social development should be articulated closely with cultural, scientific and technologic development. The National Development Plan shall take into account the National Plan on Culture formulated by Government. Public resources invested in cultural activities shall have, for all legal purposes, a public funds social expenditure nature. 2 DISCLAIMER: As Member States provide national legislations, hyperlinks and explanatory notes (if any), UNESCO does not guarantee their accuracy, nor their up-dating on this web site, and9. is notRespect liable for anyfor in humancorrect information. rights, COPYRIGHT: peaceful Allcoexistence, rights reserved.This solidarity, information may inter-culture, be used only for research,pluralism educational, and legal and non- commercial purposes, with acknowledgement of UNESCO Cultural Heritage Laws Database as the source (© UNESCO). tolerance are essential cultural values and fundamental basis of a peace culture. 10. The State shall guarantee freedom in research and they shall promote talent in research within parameters of quality, rigor and academic coherence. 11. The State shall promote creation, expansion and adaptation of artistic and cultural infrastructure and they shall guarantee access for all Colombians. 12. The State shall promote exchanges of national culture with universal culture. 13. The State when formulating its cultural policy shall take into account creators, promoters as well as the recipients of culture and they shall guarantee equal access opportunities to cultural expressions, assets and services for all Colombians conceding special treatment to persons who have physical, sensory and psychological limitations, the elderly, toddlers, youths and social sectors with the greatest needs. Article 2. About the State’s role regarding culture. The State’s duties and services in respect of culture shall be fulfilled in accordance with the stipulations of the foregoing article, taking into account that the paramount objective of the State’s policy on the subject matter is preserving the Nation’s Cultural Heritage and supporting as well as motivating people, communities and institutions that develop or promote artistic and cultural expressions at local, regional and national level. Article 3. The Ministry of Culture shall coordinate the State’s action in educating the new citizen as per the stipulations of articles 1 to 18 of Law 188 dated 1995. National Development Plan. T l TLE II Nation’s Cultural Heritage Article 4. Definition of the Nation’s cultural heritage. The Nation’s cultural heritage is constituted by all cultural assets and values that express Colombian nationality such as tradition, customs and habits, as well as the set of immaterial and material assets, movable property and real estate that have a special historic, artistic, aesthetic, plastic, architectonic, urban, archeological, environmental, ecologic, linguistic, musical, audiovisual, film, scientific, testimony, documental, literary, bibliographic, museum or anthropologic interest and the expressions, products and representations of popular culture. The provisions of this law and its future regulation shall be applied to the assets and categories of assets that constitute the Nation’s Cultural Heritage which belong to pre- Hispanic, Colonial, Independence, Republic and Contemporary periods that are declared assets of cultural interest pursuant to the appraisal criteria determined to that end by the Ministry of Culture. First Paragraph. Assets declared national monuments prior to this law, as well as assets that constitute archeological heritage shall be deemed as assets of cultural interest. 3 DISCLAIMER: As Member States provide national legislations, hyperlinks and explanatory notes (if any), UNESCO does not guarantee their accuracy, nor their up-dating on this web site, andAlso, is not liable other for anyassets incorrect may information. be declared COPYRIGHT: of Allcultura rights reserved.Thisl interest, information prior opinion may be used from only for the research, Ministry educational, of legal and non- commercial purposes, with acknowledgement of UNESCO Cultural Heritage Laws Database as the source (© UNESCO). Culture, that is to say those that have received special recognition from regional institutions. Article 5. Objectives of the State’s policy in respect of the Nation’s cultural heritage. State’s policy regarding the Nation’s cultural heritage shall have as main purpose to protect, to preserve, to restore and to disseminate heritage, in order for said heritage to serve as testimony of national cultural identity today and in the future. Article 6. Archeological heritage. Assets that constitute the archeological heritage are those personal or real estate properties that originated in cultures that have disappeared or that belong to colonial times, as well as human or organic remains related to those cultures. Similarly, parts of that heritage are geological and paleontological elements related to the history of mankind and its origins. Also part of the archeological heritage can be movable and real estate property that represent the cultural tradition and identity of existing indigenous communities and which are declared as such by the Ministry of Culture through the Colombian Anthropology Institute and in coordination with the indigenous communities. The private person who finds archeological assets shall advise immediately civil or police authorities who shall be obligated to inform the Ministry of Culture on such event within the following twenty four hours of such discovery. The Ministry of Culture shall determine technically and scientifically the sites where archaeological assets can be found or that are contiguous to archaeological areas. They shall issue the relevant declarations and they shall draft the Special Protection Plan referred to in article 10, numeral 3 of this law in conjunction with all