Heritage recognition for anti-slavery act?
On February 15, Thailand will nominate the 102-year-old abolition of slavery document passed by King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) for inclusion in the Unesco Memory of the World (MOW) Programme, a senior official said on Wednesday.
The National Committee on the MOW Programme would propose the Thai Laws and Proclamations on the bloodless Abolition of Slavery (1874-1911), which included the 22nd Royal Gazette's Slave Act RE 124 (1905) that effectively abolished the slave trade. The result of the proposal should be known by October, said the committee's chairperson, Prof Khunying Maenmas Chavalit. In two years, the committee planned to propose the inscriptions about Thai traditional medicine and massage at Bangkok's Wat Pra Chetupon Wimolmangalaram for the MOW Programme, she said. A National Library official, Chatchawal Suriyon, said the Royal Gazettes published during King Rama Vs reign were rare so it would be beneficial to be included in the MOW Program-me as it would encourage Thais to become more interested in their own history, he said. In October 2003, the National Committee on the MOW Programme had for the first time successfully pushed for the inclusion of the King Ramkham-haeng's first inscription in the MOW Programme. UNESCO launched the programme in 1992 to guard against collective amnesia by calling upon the preservation of invaluable archive holdings and library collections all over the world and ensuring their wide dissemination. Pakamard Jaichalard The Nation
|
