-Caveat Lector-
> #253
>
> July 1999
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Americans Losing Control of U.S. Treasures to United Nations
>
>
>
> by Elizabeth McGeehan
>
>
>
>
> What do the Statue of Liberty, Independence Hall, Jefferson's
> Monticello and Yellowstone National Park have in common? Each of
> these national treasures is regulated according to the dictates
> of foreign bureaucrats rather than according to the will of the
> American people.
>
> That's because each of these sites has been designated as a
> United Nations (U.N.) World Heritage Site. A U.N. World Heritage
> Site is an internationally protected landmark of cultural,
> historical or natural significance that the national government
> promises the U.N. it will protect.1 With the signing of the 1972
> World Heritage Treaty, which established the U.N. World Heritage
> Sites, the United States legally obligated itself to manage our
> historic national landmarks in compliance with U.N., not U.S.,
> standards.2 The U.S. has also allowed vast amounts of land to
> become U.N.-designated Biosphere Reserves. A Biosphere Reserve is
> an area that is set aside specifically for conservation and
> scientific study which, like a World Heritage Site, the United
> States promises to manage in accordance with U.N. standards.
>
> Currently, the United States has 20 World Heritage Sites and 47
> Biosphere Reserves encompassing 51 million acres - an area nearly
> the size of Colorado.3 The U.S. is required to regularly report
> to the U.N. on the status of its World Heritage Sites,
> specifically its "preservation and protection techniques and its
> efforts to encourage public awareness about cultural and national
> heritage."4
>
> What is especially disturbing about U.N. World Heritage Site and
> Biosphere Reserve designations are that they can be made by the
> executive branch unilaterally without congressional approval.
> Under the terms of the World Heritage Treaty, the President
> doesn't need to consult anyone before placing U.S. territory
> under the thumb of the U.N.
>
> While World Heritage Sites, Biosphere Reserves and other U.N.
> designations don't give the U.N. formal authority to regulate
> American land, Clinton Administration officials take these
> designations into account when making land-use decisions. The
> Administration has used such designations as an excuse to impose
> new regulations that blatantly restrict the rights of companies
> and private citizens. A good case in point is the 1995
> controversy that erupted over Yellowstone National Park, where
> the Clinton Administration forced a mining company to abandon a
> legal mine development project near the park, but on mostly
> private land. At the request of environmental groups, the Clinton
> Administration persuaded the U.N. to list Yellowstone as a "World
> Heritage Site in Danger."5 This special designation gave the
> Administration an excuse to force the mining company to abandon
> the project because it allegedly posed a threat to the park.
>
> Further from home, near Kakadu Park in Australia, the same
> scenario is being played out. The U.N. World Heritage Committee
> independently commissioned a study of a mine near the park that
> concluded the mine would threaten the park's environment. The
> Committee issued a powerful warning that, unless the Australian
> government could rebut the findings, the U.N. would list the site
> as "in danger."6 The Australian government objects to the U.N.'s
> demands that it stop the project but it may succumb to the
> pressure before the year is out.
>
> It's ironic that the Clinton Administration is insisting that the
> U.S. adhere to U.N. standards in protecting our national
> landmarks, given the U.S. relationship with the primary body
> responsible for administering World Heritage Site programs. For
> the past several decades, the United States has refused to
> contribute to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
> Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the institutional sponsor of the
> World Heritage Committee, because the agency has been financially
> mismanaged and mired in political controversy.7 Yet the
> Administration believes this same UNESCO is qualified to judge
> our ability to protect our most prized national treasures.
>
> Congress has become so concerned over the U.N.'s encroachment on
> national sovereignty that the U.S. House of Representatives just
> approved a bill that would help Americans reassert their right to
> determine how U.S. national territory is managed. Called the
> American Land Sovereignty Protection Act, the legislation would
> require the executive branch to seek congressional approval
> before designating any site on American soil as either a World
> Heritage Site or Biosphere Reserve. The bill has yet to be acted
> on in the Senate.
>
> As welcome as the American Land Sovereignty Protection Act is,
> one wonders why the legislation is necessary to protect
> Congress's authority over U.S. land in the first place. Article
> IV of the Constitution stipulates that "Congress shall have power
> to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations
> respecting the territory or other property belonging to the
> United States."
>
> Curbing executive branch regulatory power is long overdue.
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
>
>
> Footnotes
>
>
> 1 United States House Committee on Resources, World Heritage
> Sites and Biosphere Reserves Fact Sheet.
>
> 2 Ibid.
>
> 3 Representative Helen Chenoweth, Hearing Before the Senate
> Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and Public Lands
> Management Subcommittee, May 26, 1999.
>
> 4 United States House Committe on Resources, World Heritage Sites
> and Biosphere Reserves Fact Sheet.
>
> 5 Kathleen Benedetto, National Wilderness Institute, Hearing
> Before the Senate Committtee on Energy and Natural Resources, May
> 26, 1999.
>
> 6 Professor Jeremy Rabkin, Hearing Before the House Resources
> Committee, March 18, 1999.
>
> 7 Professor Jeremy Rabkin, Hearing Before the Senate Committee on
> Energy and Natural Resources, May 26, 1999.
>
>
>
>
> # # #
>
>
>
>
>
> Elizabeth McGeehan is a research associate of The National Center
> for Public Policy Research. Comments may be sent to
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
>
>
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