Law on Cultural Heritage

The purpose of this Law is the defense, conservation, reclamation, rescue, restoration, protection, investigation, dissemination, enhancement and transmission to future generations of the assets that constitute the Cultural Heritage of the Nation throughout the entire national territory and in jurisdictional waters. CHAPTER II: OF CULTURAL HERITAGE

It is considered that the following form part of Cultural Heritage:

• 1)

  Monuments: Those immovable assets from the pre-Columbian, colonial and republican periods that by their architecture or engineering are of anthropological and historical interest;

• 2)

  Movable Assets: Engravings, paintings, sculptures, furniture, jewelry, coins, weapons, clothing, machinery, tools or other objects of anthropological and historical interest;

• 3)

  Assemblages: Grouping of immovable assets and their natural surroundings that form a pattern of settlement, continuous or dispersed, that can be clearly delineated, conditioned by a physical structure representative of the evolution of a human community, as evidence of its culture;

• 4)

  Archaeological Site: That area or abandoned place that presents evidence of human activity in the form of artifacts, features and/or alterations resulting from the same, whether from the pre-Columbian, colonial or republican period of anthropological and historical interest and including evidence found in jurisdictional waters on the surface and in the subsoil. 5. Archaeological Zone: A place where there exists a set or group of archaeological sites; 6. Archaeological Collections: Material remains that have resulted from archaeological investigations, rescues or preservation tasks of archaeological resources or removed due to looting, as well as documentation related to them; 7. Documentary Holdings are: Handwritten documents, printed materials, seals, diplomas, maps, plans, judicial and administrative files, civil and ecclesiastical registers, engravings, magnetic tapes and recordings, microfilms, negative and positive photographs or any other class of judicial, ecclesiastical or administrative holdings, subject to archival management; 8. Bibliographic Holdings: Specialized Libraries, national books, newspaper and periodical collections and incunabula and all those of historical interest; 9. Cultural Manifestations of living indigenous peoples, their languages, their historical traditions, their knowledge and techniques, their forms of organization, their systems of values, their religious practices and the places associated with them; and, 10. Cultural Manifestations of vernacular origin that are living and are of anthropological and historical interest, religious organizations and celebrations, music and dance, prototypes of artisanal production and culinary arts, oral tradition.

For purposes of this Law, the protected cultural assets that make up the National Cultural Heritage are classified as follows:

• 1)

  National Cultural Assets of Public Use, understood as:

  • a)

    The totality of pre-Columbian heritage;

  • b)

    Submerged cultural heritage; and, c. Documentary and bibliographic holdings of public use;

• 2)

  Cultural assets owned by ecclesiastical institutions;

• 3)

  Cultural assets owned by individuals that form part of personal or family heritage or were obtained lawfully at the time; and, 4. Popular culture assets, which are owned by the communities that produce them.

For the adequate defense of Cultural Heritage, the State of Honduras declares permanent, inalienable, imprescriptible and non-transferable ownership or property over the assets referred to in numeral 1) of Article 3 of this Law. With the exception of popular culture assets or works by living authors, the exportation of all classes of cultural assets is prohibited, except in the case of exchanges under the provisions contemplated in this Law and with authorization from the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History or the State Secretariat in the Office of Culture, Arts and Sports as applicable.

Cultural assets included in this Law in the possession of religious institutions are recognized as property of the same, however, they may not be transmitted under any onerous or gratuitous title, nor ceded to individuals or to commercial entities. Said assets may only be transferred or ceded to the State, to other national religious institutions and to national cultural foundations without for-profit purposes, prior notification to the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH) and prior assessment when there is doubt about the representative authority of the grantor.

Cultural assets owned by individuals and that form part of personal and family heritage, obtained legally may be transferred on an onerous or gratuitous basis to the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, with the State obligated to indemnify the owner and register them in its favor. ARTICLE 7. The work of a living author may be declared a protected cultural asset if there exists express authorization from its owner or if it is acquired by the State on an onerous or gratuitous basis. CHAPTER III: FIELD OF APPLICATION

The provisions of this Law shall apply to the movable and immovable assets that constitute the Cultural Heritage of the Nation, whether they are in the possession of the State, municipal authorities or private parties, whether or not they have been declared national monuments, archaeological zones or historic centers.

The application of this Law extends to all those Cultural Heritage assets that are threatened or in danger of disappearance or damage, due to the execution of any public or private works. In this sense, the competent authorities may issue the preventive or prohibitive measures they consider necessary for the conservation and protection of such assets. For the development of State or private projects that may potentially affect such assets, authorization from the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History is mandatory, following prior study of physical, social and cultural impact on protected assets.

The protection of the Cultural Heritage of the Nation is of public order, of social and national interest and shall be governed by the provisions of this Law and other applicable legal norms. CHAPTER IV: OF THE INVENTORY AND NATIONAL REGISTRY OF CULTURAL ASSETS

The Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History shall prepare and keep current a national inventory of the assets that constitute Cultural Heritage and shall have the obligation to safeguard them when these have been semi-destroyed or deteriorated by the passage of time, for which purpose the State Secretariat in the Office of Finance shall provide the adequate budget at the request of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History.

For control purposes, the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History shall maintain a national registry, in which cultural assets from the Cultural Heritage that are in the possession of individuals either as depositaries or as owners shall be registered, who are obligated to register them within a period of thirty (30) days, from the entry into force of this Law unless they had been previously registered.

Cultural Heritage must be properly registered with the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, otherwise it shall be considered unlawful possession and must be recovered and administered following legal procedures through the competent judicial authority having jurisdiction in the case.

Any natural or legal person who is in legitimate possession of national public-use cultural assets protected by this Law is considered a temporary depositary and responsible for their conservation and custody, and must notify the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History within a maximum period of six (6) months from the entry into force of this Law of such possession and any circumstance that alters or affects the conservation of the protected asset unless they had done so previously. During this period, the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History shall make three (3) informational publications to the public.

Owners of any kind who intend to demolish immovable assets designated as cultural assets, claiming ruinous condition or any other reason, as well as those who intend to make reforms or additions to the building of the same, must request the assessment and authorization of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History.

Owners of immovable assets adjacent to a protected cultural asset who intend to carry out excavation, foundation, demolition or construction work that could affect its archaeological, historical, artistic or traditional characteristics must obtain the permit of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, which is authorized to exercise the necessary functions and to suspend any work of this nature carried out in violation of the Law.

When the public interest so requires and it is considered that the assets constituting the Cultural Heritage are of strategic value and their recovery is necessary to preserve them, the Executive Power through the Secretariat of State in the Offices of Culture, Arts and Sports with the Opinion of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, shall recover them, if these are in possession of private individuals as well as prohibit the alienation and transformation of the same.

Throughout the national territory and in jurisdictional waters to conduct exploration, excavation and restoration work in archaeological or historical zones and to extract from them any object they contain, prior authorization shall be required from the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History and all material extracted shall be delivered to the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History and if the heritage found is negotiable it shall be legalized through a proposal from the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, by the Executive Power.

Any private individual who accidentally or in the course of carrying out construction work discovers an antiquity or archaeological site must notify the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History immediately. In all cases, the suspension of work shall be ordered while the importance of the discovery is evaluated.

The owners of land on which cultural assets exist may not oppose the execution of exploration, excavation, restoration or study work authorized by prior written request from the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History. However, they shall have the right to respective compensation for the impairment in the exercise of property rights over the real property in accordance with qualified technical criteria in accordance with the Law. When it is in the interest of the owner to conduct or continue any infrastructure work that would cause modification or destruction of existing cultural assets on their land, the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History shall present to the owner the detailed cost of damage mitigation and/or rescue, establishing the owner's contribution according to the case, in accordance with the respective regulations.

Private individuals from the effective date of this Law may not acquire national cultural assets of public use, nor cultural assets protected in the possession of religious institutions, nor form new collections with them, except in the case of those cultural foundations that are legally authorized to do so expressly by the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, according to a formal agreement for the rescue, restoration and dissemination of the same.

Only the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History shall be the institution that may conduct or authorize excavation work, ground breaking, forest clearing, modification of monuments, demolition or remodeling of structures of assets that form part of the Cultural Heritage while respecting property rights.

The Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History shall authorize the preparation of replicas or casts based on archaeological motifs or objects. Persons engaged in these activities must register with the Institute to obtain that authorization.

In order to prevent damage to Cultural Heritage, any person may propose to the Secretariat of State in the Offices of Culture, Arts and Sports the declaration of national monument, historic cores or centers, archaeological and historical zones and areas of traditional activity to those places where they consider that there are movable and immovable assets that form part of the Cultural Heritage.

The Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History shall promote the creation of private entities of a scientific and cultural nature linked to the protection, surveillance and dissemination of the nation's cultural assets. These entities must request their legal status from the Secretariat of State in the Offices of Governance and Justice, which in turn shall request an opinion on the request from the Secretariat of State in the Offices of Culture, Arts and Sports. These institutions shall act as auxiliary organizations of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, shall be under its technical supervision and shall not have profit-making purposes.

The Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History may authorize non-profit institutions with sufficient scientific and technical capacity to carry out research, exploration, excavation and restoration work of cultural assets, as well as for the development of new archaeological parks, which shall be conducted under the surveillance and responsibility of the Institute. It shall also authorize the mounting of exhibitions and the establishment of permanent museums to disseminate the historical and anthropological heritage of the nation.

In those places declared as archaeological zones, national monuments, historic cores or centers, the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History shall regulate matters related to advertisements, signs, posters, automobile parking, gasoline sales, telegraph and telephone line poles, transformers and electrical conductors and lighting installations, food sales and any other permanent or temporary construction that alters the cultural and natural context, without prejudice to other laws or detriment to other competent authority.

The Secretariat of State in the Offices of Culture, Arts and Sports and the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History shall be responsible for the responsible execution of this Law and shall also request the cooperation of the state agencies that may be necessary for its compliance, whether these are central or decentralized institutions of the State.

Investments made in conservation, restoration and rehabilitation projects of immovable assets considered national monuments, with the proper approval of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History shall be deductible sums from income received for the calculation of Income Tax in accordance with that established in the respective Law.

Except for the exceptions established in this Law, the Documentary Fund referred to in Article 5 of this Law may not be alienated or removed from the country, unless its presentation in International Courts is necessary for the defense of the Nation's interests or for the exercise of actions that derive from the application of this Law. The conservation of documentary heritage in the possession of public institutions and organizations is declared mandatory; The impairment of the same shall be subject to the sanctions established by this Law. Likewise, efforts shall be made so that the organisms producing administrative documentation both official and private, ensure its conservation. A special Law shall determine the organization and operation of the documentary funds that form the National Heritage, which shall be under the responsibility of the Secretariat of State in the Offices of Culture, Arts and Sports.

When the cultural interest of the Nation so requires, the Secretariat of State in the Offices of Culture, Arts and Sports, through the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, may order the printing of literary, historical, geographical, linguistic productions, cultural manifestations, traditions, copies and lithographs of works of art by deceased authors, for purposes of dissemination, with prior authorization from their heirs.

The State Secretariat of the Offices of Culture, Arts and Sports, through the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, shall design and coordinate programs for the defense of the Cultural Heritage of the Nation.

When a request is presented to order the seizure of movable property that constitutes Cultural Heritage of the Nation, the Courts of Justice of the Republic and other agencies that have cognizance of the matter shall immediately order its deposit in the location designated by the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History and shall issue the corresponding Opinion regarding such property.

Whenever there is danger of damage to property of the Cultural Heritage, the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History shall decree the protective measures that are necessary, which may be anticipated as a preventive measure or, once the acts have been initiated, as a conservatory prohibition. When the case warrants it, the declaration of an archaeological zone, national monument, or historic center shall be made. The resolutions adopted shall be published once in the Official Gazette and in a newspaper of greater circulation in the area where the protected property is located.

Measures of Preventive Measures or Conservatory Prohibition shall be provisional, so long as a permanent protection order has not been issued. In no case may the provisional nature have a duration greater than sixty (60) days.

In order to ensure permanent protection of those places or property that warrant it, the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, in addition to other measures, shall promote their declaration as an archaeological zone, national monument, or historic center. The declaration shall be made by Agreement of the Executive Branch through the State Secretariat of the Offices of Culture, Arts and Sports.

For the application of the sanctions determined by this Law, the competent authorities shall be the Courts of Justice, when it concerns the commission of crimes in accordance with what is stipulated in the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedures; regarding monetary claims, the claim must be made by the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, which shall enforce the fines stipulated in this Law and shall deposit them in the General Treasury of the Republic.

The extraction of historical documents from the documentary collections that constitute the Cultural Heritage of the Nation is prohibited; those who violate this provision shall be sanctioned with a fine of ten thousand (Lps. 10,000.00) to twenty thousand Lempiras (Lps. 20,000.00), without prejudice to the responsibility contemplated in the Penal Code.

It is strictly prohibited for the municipalities of the Republic to change the traditional indigenous names of towns or the traditional names of colonial origin, and likewise for private individuals to make changes to the legal names of sites that have a registered traditional name. Any person responsible for the violation of this norm shall be sanctioned with a fine of ten thousand Lempiras (Lps. 10,000.00).

It is prohibited for organizations of any kind to diminish the traditional culture of indigenous communities, by preventing or acting coercively against the celebration of their periodic festivals and autochthonous rituals and other cultural manifestations. Those who violate this provision shall be imposed a penalty of ten thousand (Lps. 10,000.00) to twenty thousand Lempiras (Lps. 20,000.00), without prejudice to the corresponding criminal action.

Whoever exports Cultural Heritage property without completing the legal formalities shall be punished with a fine of one million Lempiras (Lps. 1,000,000.00), as well as with the seizure of the cultural property unlawfully exported and the penalty of deprivation of liberty established in our Penal Code.

A person who unlawfully acquires or transfers Cultural Heritage property whose trade is prohibited shall be imposed a pecuniary sanction of two hundred thousand (Lps. 200,000.00) to four hundred thousand Lempiras (Lps. 400,000.00), in addition to seizure and the penalty established in our Penal Code.

Whoever conducts excavation work, removal or breaking of earth, landscape modification, or alteration of monuments in archaeological and historical sites, extraction of treasures in protected zones or in zones not declared due to lack of knowledge of their location, without prior authorization from the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, shall be imposed a fine of one million (Lps. 1,000,000.00) to two million Lempiras (Lps. 2,000,000.00) and the corresponding penalty established in our Code, according to the gravity of the case.

Whoever makes replicas or casts of a protected cultural property without the corresponding permission shall be imposed a fine of one thousand (Lps. 1,000.00) to five thousand Lempiras (Lps. 5,000.00).

The exercise of civil, criminal, and administrative actions derived from the application of this Law shall correspond to the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic.

The cultural property referred to in this Law that enters the country shall not be subject to the payment of taxes, customs duties, or consulting fees, if they have been authorized by the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History to leave or enter the country, and with the knowledge of the customs authorities; they shall be registered in the National Registry of Cultural Property immediately.

The Government of Honduras shall enter into Bilateral and Regional Treaties with foreign governments that it deems appropriate to prevent the illicit trafficking of cultural property of the contracting countries, without prejudice to existing multilateral laws and treaties on this matter.

Museums or cultural centers, official or private, may only be organized and established for the exhibition of collections of Cultural Heritage property for public use through authorization by the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, which shall monitor the proper safeguarding of such property and shall be obligated to support these centers with the permanent loan of heritage property in accordance with special regulations. The Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History shall also authorize and supervise the establishment of private museums with property belonging to ecclesiastical entities and private parties. In the case of modern or contemporary art museums, the State Secretariat of Culture, Arts and Sports shall be responsible for authorizing and supporting the organization of such museums through specific agreement.

When, in accordance with what is provided in Chapters II and V of this Law, a temporary or permanent measure is adopted affecting property of private ownership, excluding cultural property for public use protected by the same, the Institute is obligated to pay compensation in accordance with generally accepted procedure. The State Secretariat of Culture, Arts and Sports shall include annually in the budget a line item to attend to the payment of such obligations as well as those necessary to rescue heritage property located in private properties, for which purpose the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History may also allocate funds from its Heritage Account.

For purposes of international cultural exchange in which temporary transfer of cultural property is necessary for exhibition purposes, the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History shall obtain the respective Agreement from the Executive Branch through the State Secretariat of Culture, Arts and Sports.

The Executive Branch, at the request of the State Secretariat of Culture, Arts and Sports, shall exercise the necessary legal actions conducive to the recovery of property referred to in this Law, when such property is in the possession of other countries or private individuals abroad.

Those movable property that are part of cultural heritage or are included in a declaration of a historic center shall be registered in the Registry of Real Property and Commerce. Owners of such property who transfer or lease said property by any title shall notify the buyers or tenants of the obligations and privileges attached to their ownership or use.

Fines imposed as principal or accessory penalties in accordance with this Law shall be deposited in the Heritage Account of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History at the Central Bank of Honduras. Such amounts shall be allocated to the rescue, restoration, conservation, dissemination and research of the cultural property of the Nation. The certificate issued by the competent Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, stating that the fine has not been collected within the period specified by this Law, shall have executive force.

The Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History shall cooperate with state entities responsible for the cultural-educational system in the formulation and development of study plans that promote the formation of civic awareness regarding the necessity of preserving the Cultural Heritage of the Nation. It shall likewise supervise the preparation of related educational texts.

The Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, in coordination with the National Geographic Institute, shall issue regulations to preserve the toponymic collection in the original indigenous languages and to recover those traditional indigenous names and those of colonial origin that have fallen into disuse or have been supplanted by intervention of any government agency or private parties.

In those cases duly verified in which deterioration or degradation of protected cultural property is caused by negligence of private owners of such property, the State may expropriate them following the procedures established in our laws. Notwithstanding, the State shall cooperate with the owners of such property in the repair and restoration thereof, when for reasons beyond their control they cannot be carried out by themselves.

This Law repeals Decree No. 81-84 of May 21, 1984, containing the previous Law for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of the Nation and any other legal provision that is contrary to it.

This Decree shall enter into force as of the date of its publication in the Official Gazette La Gaceta. Given in the city of Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District, in the Chamber of the National Congress, on the seventeenth day of the month of December of nineteen hundred ninety-seven. CARLOS ROBERTO FLORES FACUSSÉ President ROBERTO MICHHELETTI BAIN Secretary SALOMON SORTO DEL CID Secretary To the Executive Branch. Therefore: Let it be executed. Tegucigalpa, M.D.C., December 29, 1997 CARLOS ROBERTO REINA IDIÁQUEZ Constitutional President of the Republic The State Secretary of Culture, Arts and Sports. RODOLFO PASTOR F.