Mexico protects by law indigenous and Afro-Mexican cultural heritage

Mexico, Jan 18 (Prensa Latina) Mexico made official this Tuesday a decree that issues the Federal Law for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican Communities, whose objective is to recognize and guarantee them that property right.

January 18, 2022
11:41

Mexico’s Official Journal, or official gazette, has already established as law that right of indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples and communities over the elements that make up their traditional cultural knowledge and expressions, as well as the collective intellectual property.

It also establishes penalties for the misappropriation, use, commercialization or reproduction of the cultural heritage, knowledge and traditional cultural expressions of those ethnic groups.

At the same time, a decree was also published in which Article 16 of the Law-General of Linguistic Rights of Indigenous Peoples is amended, to establish that the National Council will also include a representative of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples.

In addition, the Secretariat of National Defense published another decree by which several provisions of the Military Education Act and the Act of the Mexican Army and Air Force are amended, which indirectly also favors those ethnic groups.

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