Resolution nº 2008/23 of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. 24-07-2008

• Date: 24 July 2008
• Issuer: Economic and Social Council of the United Nation

ECOSOC Resolution 2008/23

Protection against trafficking in cultural property

The Economic and Social Council

,

Recalling

General Assembly resolution 56/8 of 21 November

2001, in which the Assembly proclaimed 2002 the United Nations

Year for Cultural Heritage, and resolutions 58/17 of 3 December 2003

and 61/52 of 4 December 2006, on the return or restitution of cultural

property to the countries of origin,

Recalling also

the model treaty for the prevention of crimes that

infringe on the cultural heritage of peoples in the form of movable

property,

1

which was adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress

on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders and

welcomed by the General Assembly in its resolution 45/121 of 14

December 1990,

Emphasizing

the importance for States of protecting and

preserving their cultural heritage in accordance with relevant

international instruments such as the Convention on the Means of

Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of

Ownership of Cultural Property, adopted by the United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on 14 November

1970,

2

the Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural

Objects, adopted at Rome on 24 June 1995 by the International

Institute for the Unification of Private Law,

3

and the Convention for

the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict,

adopted at The Hague on 14 May 1954,

4

and the two Protocols thereto

of 14 May 1954 and 26 March 1999,

Reiterating

the significance of cultural property as part of the

common heritage of humankind and as unique and important

testimony of the culture and identity of peoples and the necessity of

protecting it,

Reaffirming

the necessity of international cooperation in

preventing and combating all aspects of trafficking in cultural

property,

5

and noting that such cultural property is especially

transferred through licit markets, such as auctions, including through

the Internet,

Reaffirming also

its resolutions 2004/34 of 21 July 2004, entitled

“Protection against trafficking in cultural property”, and 2003/29 of

1

Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment

of Offenders, Havana, 27 August-7 September 1990: report prepared by the

Secretariat

(United Nations publication, Sales No. E.91.IV.2), chap. I, sect. B.1.

2

United Nations,

Treaty Series

, vol. 823, No. 11806.

3

Available from www.unidriot.org.

4

United Nations,

Treaty Series

, vol. 249, No. 3511.

5

It is understood that the expression “trafficking in cultural property” shall be

interpreted in conformity with the relevant international instruments, including

the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import,

Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.