Legal instruments
UNIDROIT Convention (1995)
UNIDROIT (International Institute for the Unification of Private Law) is an independent intergovernmental organization. Its purpose is to study needs and methods for modernizing, harmonizing and coordinating private and, in particular, commercial law between States and groups of States.
was adopted by the Diplomatic Conference in Rome on 24 June 1995. This legal instrument was drawn up at the request of UNESCO with a view of developing a uniform minimum corpus of rules of private law relating to the international trade of art. The 1995 UNIDROIT Convention is a complementary instrument to supplement the provisions of public law contained in UNESCO’s 1970 Convention.
In the UNIDROIT Convention, States commit to a uniform treatment for restitution of stolen or illegally exported cultural objects and allow restitution claims to be processed directly through national courts. Moreover the UNIDROIT Convention covers all stolen cultural objects, not just inventoried and declared ones and stipulates that all cultural property must be returned.
As of February 2020, the Convention has 48 Contracting States and 9 other States have signed but not yet ratified it.
UNESCO-UNIDROIT Model Provisions on State Ownership of Undiscovered Cultural Objects
The UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to Its Countries of Origin or Its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation and the UNIDROIT Governing Council and their respective Secretariats work together to protect cultural property. Such cooperation and coordination is of particular importance for the protection of archaeological objects.
In response to a growing need to standardize the definition of State ownership of those cultural objects yet undiscovered, the UNESCO and UNIDROIT Secretariats convened a group of experts and endowed them with a mandate to draft a text that would appropriately address the subject. The resultant and their explanatory guidelines are made available to the relevant domestic bodies and legislatures to help them establish and recognize State ownership of undiscovered cultural objects.
The Model Provisions were designed to be brief, approachable and intelligible. As such, the six provisions carefully articulate the legal status, as applicable to the respective acceding national legislations, of undiscovered cultural property as well as the methods by which it is enforced domestically and internationally, alike. The principle of inalienability is extended to all cultural property, both discovered and not, through authorized excavation and otherwise.
As a resource and tool, the Model Provisions are intended to serve as a complement to the work of the organs responsible for their commission and the relevant partners and associates. They are aimed at facilitating the application of the 1970 UNESCO Convention and the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention. Each State is encouraged to implement the Model Provisions for a standardised understanding of State ownership of cultural property and better focused effort at its protection. It is noted, however, that the Model Provisions do not constitute a binding legal instrument.
Other applicable international legal instruments
currently 133 States Parties; provides for the return of cultural property illegally exported from occupied territories
: applicable among the 28 Member States of the EU, it provides for a specific procedure for the return of illegally removed cultural property and introduce the notion of due diligence
: establishes a procedure for the return of stolen or illicitly exported objects within the Commonwealth; model legislation has been drafted which the 54 Commonwealth Member States may use as a basis for a national legislation.
Resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly about Return and Restitution of Cultural Property
The United Nations General Assembly is also involved in this field. Indeed, since 1972, many resolutions on the Protection and the Return of Cultural Property, as part of the Preservation and Further Development of Cultural Values, have been adopted.
- Resolution of 18 December 1972
- Resolution of 14 December 1973
- Resolution of 18 December 1973
- Resolution of 19 November 1975
- Resolution of 30 November 1976
- Resolution of 11 Novembrer 1977
- Resolution of 14 December 1978
- Resolution of 29 November 1979
- Resolutions of 11 December 1980
- Resolution of 27 November 1981
- Resolution of 25 November 1983
- Resolution of 21 November 1985
- Resolution of 22 October 1987
- Resolution of 6 November 1989
- Resolution of 22 October 1991
- Resolution of 2 November 1993
- Resolution of 11 December 1995
- Resolution of 25 November 1997
- Resolution of 17 December 1999
- Resolution of 14 December 2001
- Resolution of 22 May 2003 by the Security Council of the UN concerning Iraq
- Resolution of 3 December 2003
- Resolution of 4 December 2006
- Resolution of 7 December 2009
- Resolution of 5 December 2012
- Resolution of 12 February 2015
- Resolution of 9 December 2015
- Resolution of 17 December 2015
- Resolution of 24 March 2017