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The Convention
1970 UNESCO CONVENTION (Paris, 14 Nov 1970, Entry into force 24 April 1972)
The 1970 UNESCO Convention is an international treaty. It formulates basic principles for the protection of cultural goods and contains minimum standards for legislative, administrative, and international treaty measures, which the member states must implement to prevent illicit trafficking of cultural goods. As of 3 October 2003, 102 countries have ratified the Convention.
What is it?
The Convention is non-self executing; the convention requires that the obligations be implemented into national law at the time of ratification. Some of the most important obligations include:
- Fighting illicit import, export, and transfer of cultural goods (Art. 2)
- Establishing a national inventory of protected property whose export would constitute an appreciable impoverishment of the national cultural heritage (Art. 5)
- Taking the necessary measures to prevent museums and similar institutions within their territories from acquiring cultural property originating in another State party to the Convention, which has been illegally exported, after this Convention enters into force (Art. 7)
- Prohibiting the import of cultural property stolen from a museum or a religious or secular public monument or similar institution in another State party to the Convention after the convention enters into force, or returning the object to the country of origin (Art. 7)
- Imposing penalties or administrative sanctions (Art. 8)
- Cooperating with parties to the Convention whose cultural heritage is in jeopardy from pillaging of archaeological or ethnological materials (Art. 9)
- Obliging antique dealers to maintain a register recording the origin of each item as well as to inform the purchaser of possible existing export prohibitions (Art. 10)
- Preventing by all appropriate means the transfer of ownership of cultural property likely to promote illicit import or export of such property (Art. 13)
- Recognising the right of each State party to the convention to declare certain cultural property as inalienable, which should therefore by the very nature of the case (ipso facto) not be exported (Art. 13)
For more information
The official text and documents which includes the list of ratifiers can be found through the following link:
- http://www.unesco.org/culture/laws/1970/html_eng/page2.shtml in English
- http://www.unesco.org/culture/laws/1970/html_fr/page2.shtml in French
Practical information regarding the national application of this Convention can be obtained from the national associations, which can be accessed through this website or from the CINOA Secretariat.
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