On 22 July 2014, the Director-General received a communication dated 17 July 2014 from the Permanent Delegation of the Netherlands to UNESCO concerning the declaration by the Government of Malaysia. The text of the communication in question is the following:
"The Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands has carefully examined the declaration made by the Government of Malaysia upon ratification of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands considers that the declaration made by Malaysia in substance constitutes a reservation limiting the scope of the Convention.
The Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands notes that the reservation, according to which ‘the application and implementation of this Conventions [sic] shall be subject to, and in accordance with, the applicable domestic laws of Malaysia and the applicable administrative and policy measures of the government of Malaysia’, implies that the application of the Convention is made subject to a general reservation referring to national legislation in force in Malaysia.
The Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands considers that such a reservation must be regarded as incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention and would recall that, according to Article 19 (c) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, a reservation incompatible with the object and purpose of the Covenant [sic] shall not be permitted.
The Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands therefore objects to the reservation made by Malaysia to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
This objection shall not preclude the entry into force of the Convention between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Malaysia." [original: English]
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