International Preservation Conventions: UNESCO: The World Heritage Convention,1972 UNESCO: Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict – 1954 UNESCO: Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property,1970

1) The World Heritage Convention,1972 The most significant feature of the 1972 World Heritage Convention is that it links together in a single document the concepts of nature conservation and the preservation of cultural properties. The Convention recognizes the way in which people interact with nature, and the fundamental need to preserve the balance between the two. in which people interact with nature, and the fundamental need to preserve the balance between the two.

In 1972, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized the need to identify and permanently protect the world's special areas and adopted the World Heritage Convention. Founded on the principle of international cooperation, the Convention provides for the protection of the world's cultural and natural heritage places. It came into force in 1975 after being initially ratified by 20 countries. By adopting the Convention in August 1974, Australia became one of the first of more than 140 countries committed to the identification, protection, conservation and presentation of World Heritage properties. What is the World Heritage Convention?

The Committee's function is to: -Identify nominated cultural and natural properties of outstanding universal value which are to be protected under the Convention and to list them on the World Heritage List; -Decide if properties on the list should be inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger; - And determine how and under what conditions the World Heritage Fund can be used to assist countries in protection of their World Heritage property. The Convention is UNESCO's most widely accepted international instrument and also the world's most ratified agreement on conservation. The World Heritage Convention is administered by the World Heritage Committee which consists of 21 elected nations, all parties to the Convention. Elections are held every two years.

The Convention sets out the duties of States Parties in identifying potential sites and their role in protecting and preserving them. By signing the Convention, each country pledges to conserve not only the World Heritage sites situated on its territory, but also to protect its national heritage. The States Parties are encouraged to integrate the protection of the cultural and natural heritage into regional planning programmers', set up staff and services at their sites, undertake scientific and technical conservation research and adopt measures which give this heritage a function in the day-to-day life of the community.

Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage The cultural heritage and the natural heritage are increasingly threatened with destruction not only by the traditional causes of decay, but also by changing social and economic conditions which aggravate the situation with even more formidable phenomena of damage or destruction, Considering that deterioration or disappearance of any item of the cultural or natural heritage constitutes a harmful impoverishment of the heritage of all the nations of the world, Considering that protection of this heritage at the national level often remains incomplete because of the scale of the resources which it requires and of the insufficient economic, scientific, and technological resources of the country where the property to be protected is situated,

Recalling that the Constitution of the Organization provides that it will maintain, increase, and diffuse knowledge, by assuring the conservation and protection of the world's heritage, and recommending to the nations concerned the necessary international conventions, Considering that the existing international conventions, recommendations and resolutions concerning cultural and natural property demonstrate the importance, for all the peoples of the world, of safeguarding this unique and irreplaceable property, to whatever people it may belong, Considering that parts of the cultural or natural heritage are of outstanding interest and therefore need to be preserved as part of the world heritage of mankind as a whole.

Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict The Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict adopted at The Hague (Netherlands) in 1954 in the wake of massive destruction of the cultural heritage in the Second World War is the first international treaty of a world-wide vocation focusing exclusively on the protection of cultural heritage in the event of armed conflict. It covers immovable's and movables, including monuments of architecture, art or history, archaeological sites, works of art, manuscripts, books and other objects of artistic, historical or archaeological interest, as well as scientific collections of all kinds regardless of their origin or ownership. The States which are party to the Convention benefit from a network of more than 100 States that agreed have undertaken to lessen the consequences of armed conflict for cultural heritage and to take preventive measures for such protection not only in time of hostility but also in time of peace,

by a variety of measures : safeguard and respect cultural property during both international and non-international armed conflicts; consider registering a limited number of refuges, monumental centers and other immovable cultural property of very great importance in the International Register of Cultural Property under Special Protection and obtain special protection for such property; consider marking of certain important buildings and monuments with a special protective emblem of the Convention; set up special units within the military forces to be responsible for the protection of cultural heritage; penalize violations of the Convention and to promote widely the Convention within the general public and target groups such as cultural heritage professionals, the military or law-enforcement agencies.

The cultural heritage reflects the life of the community, its history and its identity. Its preservation helps to rebuild broken communities, re-establish their identities, and link their past with their present and future. Why care about monuments? Lives are being lost. Families are becoming refugees. Children are being maimed. Why care for monuments? Some day the conflict will be over … Some day people will return to their homes … Somehow shattered lives will have to be rebuilt …

The Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict adopted at The Hague (Netherlands) in 1954, as a consequence to the massive destruction of the cultural heritage in the Second World War, is the first international treaty of a world-wide vocation dedicated exclusively to the protection of cultural heritage in the event of armed conflict. The Convention was adopted together with a Protocol in order to prevent the export of cultural property from occupied territory, requiring the return of such property to the territory of the State from which it was removed. The destruction of cultural property in the course of the conflicts that took place at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, highlighted the necessity for a number of improvements to be addressed in the implementation of the Hague Convention. A review of the Convention was initiated in 1991, resulting in the adoption of a Second Protocol to the Hague Convention in March 1999.

The High Contracting Parties are agreed as follows : 1. Each High Contracting Party undertakes to prevent the exportation, from a territory occupied by it during an armed conflict, of cultural property, the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, signed at The Hague on 14 May, Each High Contracting Party undertakes to take into its custody cultural property imported into its territory either directly or indirectly from any occupied territory. This shall either be effected automatically upon the importation of the property or, failing this, at the request of the authorities of that territory. 3. Each High Contracting Party undertakes to return, at the close of hostilities, to the competent authorities of the territory previously occupied, cultural property which is in its territory, if such property has been exported in contravention of the principle laid down in the first paragraph. Such property shall never be retained as war reparations. 4. The High Contracting Party whose obligation it was to prevent the exportation of cultural property from the territory occupied by it, shall pay an indemnity to the holders in good faith of any cultural property which has to be returned in accordance with the preceding paragraph.

The Parties, Conscious of the need to improve the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict and to establish an enhanced system of protection for specifically designated cultural property; Reaffirming the importance of the provisions of the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, done at the Hague on 14 May 1954, and emphasizing the necessity to supplement these provisions through measures to reinforce their implementation; Desiring to provide the High Contracting Parties to the Convention with a means of being more closely involved in the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict by establishing appropriate procedures therefore; Considering that the rules governing the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict should reflect developments in international law; Affirming that the rules of customary international law will continue to govern questions not regulated by the provisions of this Protocol;

Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property,1970 The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, meeting in Paris from 12 October to 14 November 1970, at its sixteenth session, RECALLING the importance of the provisions contained in the Declaration of the Principles of International Cultural Co-operation, adopted by the General Conference at its fourteenth session, CONSIDERING that the interchange of cultural property among nations for scientific, cultural and educational purposes increases the knowledge of the civilization of Man, enriches the cultural life of all peoples and inspires mutual respect and appreciation among nations, CONSIDERING that cultural property constitutes one of the basic elements of civilization and national culture, and that its true value can be appreciated only in relation to the fullest possible information regarding its origin, history and traditional setting, CONSIDERING that it is incumbent upon every State to protect the cultural property existing within its territory against the dangers of theft, clandestine excavation, and illicit export,

CONSIDERING that, to avert these dangers, it is essential for every State to become increasingly alive to the moral obligations to respect its own cultural heritage and that of all nations, CONSIDERING that, as cultural institutions, museums, libraries and archives should ensure that their collections are built up in accordance with universally recognized moral principles, CONSIDERING that the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property is an obstacle to that understanding between nations which it is part of Unesco's mission to promote by recommending to interested States, international conventions to this end, CONSIDERING that the protection of cultural heritage can be effective only if organized both nationally and internationally among States working in close co-operation, CONSIDERING that the Unesco General Conference adopted a Recommendation to this effect in 1964, HAVING before it further proposals on the means of prohibiting and preventing the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property, a question which is on the agenda for the session as item 19, HAVING decided, at its fifteenth session, that this question should be made the subject of an international convention, ADOPT this Convention on the fourteenth day of November 1970.

THANK YOU NEGAR ASOOBAR