EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis). This is a very sensible proposal from someone who happens to be an authority in International Law, Mr. Prokopis Pavlopoulos, former President of Greece. In brief, he recommends that we should avoid relying solely on Egyptian internal law and instead emphasize St. Catherine’s protection through international conventions, such as the 1972 UNESCO Convention. Both Greece and Egypt have signed it.
I consider myself fortunate to have taken one or two classes wth him, when he first started teaching at the Athens Law School (1980-82). Please link here for his biography.
=================
Pres. Pavlopoulos: International Law for the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine of Sinai
The former President of the Republic, Professor of Public Law and Academic , Prokopis Pavlopoulos , says about the Sinai Monastery :
The 1972 UNESCO Convention establishes a comprehensive single set of rules of International Law for the protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
From our point of view, it is not appropriate to approach and defend the legal nature of the status of the Holy Monastery of St. Catherine of Sinai in terms of Egypt’s domestic law and judicial system . This path is certainly a “slippery” one, because it traps us in the issues of the Egyptian legal order and the way in which its rules are applied by the Egyptian courts. For Greece, but also internationally, the legal status of the Holy Monastery of St. Catherine of Sinai must be treated primarily as a matter of International Law . And specifically, an issue that is regulated by the relevant provisions of the 1972 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
The above-mentioned 1972 UNESCO Convention – to which more than 191 UN Member States have acceded – establishes a comprehensive, unified set of rules of International Law for the protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which is binding, in its entirety , on all UN Member States that have, as already emphasized, acceded to it. Egypt is included among these States . Therefore, Egypt must also respect , in its entirety, the 1972 UNESCO Convention. In fact, regardless of the provisions of its domestic law. This is because International Law – like the 1972 UNESCO Convention – has, without exception, a superior formal force in relation to the provisions of the laws of the States that have made it part of their legal order. Therefore, Egypt, and with regard to the 1972 UNESCO Convention, cannot oppose its internal law and the judicial decisions that apply it to anyone – and therefore to Greece – by citing, allegedly, the inability to apply it in practice.
In particular, implementing the 1972 UNESCO Convention, Egypt requested and accepted, in 2002 , the inclusion of the Holy Monastery of St. Catherine of Sinai in the status of World Cultural Heritage Monuments . A simple study of the provisions of the aforementioned inclusion proves, without any doubt , that these provisions guarantee the “triple” of the religious, spiritual and liturgical identity of the Holy Monastery of St. Catherine of Sinai. That is, they guarantee that the Holy Monastery in question is now destined to maintain, uninterruptedly, intact its general religious identity , while in parallel – and complementary – it must be able to ensure , also uninterruptedly, its spiritual and liturgical constitution as a Center of Orthodox Spirituality. This is further reinforced by the provisions of Article 18 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights , which establish the fundamental right, individual and collective, of Religious Freedom . This means, furthermore, that within the Center of Orthodox Spirituality of the Holy Monastery of St. Catherine of Sinai, every believer must be free to exercise , individually and collectively, the aforementioned fundamental right of Religious Freedom.
In conclusion, and beyond and beyond any contrary regulation or judicial decision of its domestic law, Egypt, based on the 1972 UNESCO Convention to which it acceded, has an international obligation, vis-à-vis all, on the one hand to fully respect the character of the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine of Sinai as a World Cultural Heritage Monument that constitutes a Center of Orthodox Spirituality. And, on the other hand, to ensure within it and within its wider area the unhindered exercise , by the faithful individually and collectively, of the fundamental right to Religious Freedom in accordance with the provisions of article 18 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It should be noted with regard to the latter that the corresponding case law accepts that through the application of the above-mentioned article 18 , among others, every religious community is protected against any arbitrary state intervention , from any state organ – namely the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Powers – regardless of where it comes from.
I consider that the above, internationally respected, legal basis is the safest and most appropriate for the necessary immediate actions of the Greek Government and the other competent state authorities, in terms of protecting the entire legal status of the Holy Monastery of St. Catherine of Sinai from possible deviations to its detriment by any form of authorities of the State of Egypt. It goes without saying that Greece must, without delay, mobilize UNESCO in the same direction , given that it is its obligation to guarantee respect for and the effective implementation in practice of the 1972 Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
See also:
Bravo and Agreed! Now, if the site of St. Catharine’s is protected by UNESCO, does the site extend beyond the walls of the monastery, and if so, how far? Can Egypt still build a theme park around it or near it, and if so, how near?