Development of the UNESCO Database of National Cultural Heritage Laws Phase III Project proposal 1
1. Identification of the Action 1. Title of the Action Development of the UNESCO Database of National Cultural Heritage Laws Phase III 2. Geographical scope Global 3. Total cost of the Action Total estimated cost: USD 673 736 (including indirect costs) 4. Duration 3 years 5. UNESCO Contacts Responsible Officer: Mr. Ieng Srong Chief of Section CLT/HER/MHM Email: i.srong@unesco.org 2. Rationale and background 2.1 Summary of the Action and its objectives The action aims at reducing the illegal trade in cultural objects and promoting their restitution through enhanced information sharing on the existing legislation to protect cultural heritage at global level. This will be possible through the improvement and update of the UNESCO Database on Cultural Heritage Laws (Hereinafter referred to as Natlaws database ). The Natlaws database is a unique tool at international level, which allows for a free, rapid and easy access to cultural legislation worldwide. This projects aims at promoting the use of the Natlaws database among UNESCO Member States while increasing its efficiency and making it more comprehensive. 2.2 Context The illicit trafficking of cultural property generates a lucrative unlawful trade, with a great percentage of stolen artefacts never being recovered. This activity, aggravated by natural disasters and armed conflicts poses a serious risk not only to cultural property, but also to the collective memory of future generations, and hinders the potential of culture as a primary vector for social cohesion and economic development. 2
Furthermore, in its Resolutions 2195 (December 2014), 2199 (February 2015), and 2253 (December 2015) the UN Security Council acknowledged the links existing between terrorist and transnational organized criminal groups and also the use of various types of illicit trafficking - notably cultural goods - to fund terrorist and criminal operations. The UN Security Council urged in both the above-mentioned resolutions all States and international organizations to address trafficking in cultural goods in order to stop illicit flows, cut funding to terrorist and other dangerous groups and preserve the cultural and historical heritage of the countries victim of such trafficking. Since the adoption of the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, in 1970, UNESCO has spearheaded international efforts to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural property at global level, and to promote its return and restitution. Experiences gained from over 40 years of operations show that the combat against this type of crime can only be effective provided it is comprehensive (combining specific training with legal and institutional reform, technologic development, regional and international cooperation, education), coordinated (mobilizing different stakeholders with complementary tasks and responsibilities along an agreed policy framework), continuous (based on a strategic long-term vision) and nationally and locally owned. The creation of laws and regulations is crucial to secure the protection of the cultural heritage. Indeed, Article 5(a) of the text of the 1970 Convention 1 requires States Parties to adopt appropriate legislation for the protection of the cultural heritage and prevention of the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property. As indicated in the Operational Guidelines 2 of the 1970 Convention, States Parties may seek assistance or advice for the making of such legislation from UNESCO. States Parties are encouraged to review their legislation periodically to ensure that it integrates the relevant international legal framework and best practice. The Operational Guidelines of the 1970 Convention also highlight that all relevant national legislation needs to be appropriately publicized so that collectors, dealers, museums and other stakeholders concerned with the movement of cultural objects are fully aware of the precise national provisions they should comply with. For this purpose, UNESCO established the Natlaws database. The development of this innovative tool was approved by the UNESCO General Conference in 2003 and launched in 2005 by the 13 th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation. The Natlaws database is a unique international gateway to national laws related to cultural heritage. It aims to strengthen the protection of cultural heritage against looting, theft, illegal export and import, illicit trafficking, as well as against other threats to cultural heritage (intentional destruction, natural disaster, etc.). The Natlaws database: - publishes in real time UNESCO Member States laws on cultural heritage protection including legislative texts that regulate the movement of cultural objects; - enables any individual or entity to access cultural heritage legislation currently in force, as well as related historical background; - allows for rapid and free of charge consultation of relevant national laws in original language as well as with access to a translation at least in English; 1 http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-url_id=13039&url_do=do_topic&url_section=201.html 2 http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/clt/pdf/operational_guidelines_en_fi NAL_FINAL.pdf 3
The Natlaws database includes the following information. - National laws related to cultural heritage in general (in their original language, with an official or unofficial English translation, as specified - Import/export procedures and model certificates (available on request) - Contact information for national authorities responsible for the protection of cultural heritage - Official cultural heritage web site addresses for countries that have provided national laws States Parties are encouraged to provide all relevant legislation, including their export and import laws and the legislation on criminal and administrative sanctions, to the UNESCO Secretariat translated into English or French for inclusion in the Natlaws database and especially to keep it updated. As of July 2017, the Natlaws database contains approximately 2900 laws from 188 countries in 42 languages. Until July 2017 and since its inception, the project has been supported by the United States Department of State, that covered the expenses of the first and second phases of the project. Following this, Resolution 4.MSP.7 adopted during the 4 th Meeting of States Parties of the 1970 Convention invited the States Parties to consider providing financial contribution to ensure the sustainability of the Natlaws Database of National Cultural Heritage Laws 3. Decision 5 SC 4B(8) adopted during the 5 th Session of its Subsidiary Committee requested the Secretariat to send information electronically to all States Parties to the 1970 Convention, within two months time after the closure of this session, on the necessary updates for the UNESCO Database of National Cultural Heritage Laws including information on the required budget 4. This project document responds to these statutory decisions. 2.3. Why UNESCO? UNESCO is the only agency of the United Nations system with a specific mandate to protect cultural heritage. It has solid experience in the fight against illicit trafficking in cultural property, which is now at the core of the international security agenda. Moreover, it is the depository of the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, which as of July 2017 has been ratified by 132 States. The Organization works closely with its network of stakeholders in order to boost the ratification and implementation of the 1970 Convention through intensive advocacy work, capacity-building, awareness-raising and partnership development. UNESCO s Secretariat has been the depositary of the Natlaws database for the past 12 years. During this time, the Secretariat has liaised with the Permanent Delegations of Member States to UNESCO in order to update their cultural legislation on a regular basis; has translated and published the relevant texts; published an informative brochure in all official languages of the Organization and disseminated monthly newsletters which have been sent to over 1400 subscribers. Furthermore, the Secretariat constantly publicizes the database in statutory meetings, capacity-building workshops, advocacy meetings, as well as on its website. 3 http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/clt/images/4mspresolutions_en.pdf 4 http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/clt/images/5sc_decisions_en.pdf 4
2.4. Beneficiaries and other key stakeholders The direct beneficiaries from the activity are: Law- and policy-making institutions (governments and international intergovernmental organizations) Institutions preserving and promoting cultural heritage (museums and non-profit cultural heritage organizations) Law enforcement bodies (police, customs officials) Research centers and researchers (universities, scholars, archaeologists, students, lawyers and legal experts) The global market in antiquities and other cultural property (dealers, importers, exporters and collectors) 2.5. Lessons Learnt As reflected in the Evaluation of UNESCO s Standard-setting Work of the Culture Sector - Part II 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (2014) 5, States Parties to the Convention ranked the Natlaws database very highly as a practical tool. A number of State Parties with import restrictions reported that they consult this database to identify when a cultural object falls under the export restrictions of other State Parties, and State Parties making requests for return/restitution likewise consult the database. The Natlaws database has also been used by State Parties to compare national laws with the laws of other State Parties, and other stakeholders, such as academics and representatives of other intergovernmental organizations also reported consulting the database for research and training purposes. However, according to this report, States Parties addressed two main shortcomings: - the need to increase the number of French and English translations; - the incomplete coverage of national laws, as confirmed by the fact that many of the laws that respondents listed on the survey are not included in the database. While the Secretariat addresses the first point in this second phase of the project, the second point requires the active involvement of State Parties. 3. Detailed Description of the Action 3.1. Objectives of the Action The overall objective of the project is to reduce the illicit trafficking in cultural property worldwide through enhanced information sharing on the existing legislation to protect cultural heritage at global level. 5 http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002269/226931e.pdf 5
The specific objectives are: 1) To publicize online all new and updated legislation of UNESCO Member States and Observers; 2) To promote the use of the Natlaws database among Member States; 3) To increase the participation of developing Member States, as well as those affected by a conflict situation, through financial assistance for translations and technical assistance; 4) To improve the existing database; 5) To foster cooperation on the fight against illicit trafficking in cultural property through among Member States. Results framework: Impact: illicit trafficking in cultural property is reduced through enhanced information sharing on the existing legislation to protect cultural heritage at global level. Quantitative and/or qualitative performance indicator: PI 1.Number of legislations in the database Baseline (B): Source and means of verification (M): PI 2. Number of countries send legislation on the database 188 UNESCO Secretariat Target (T): 2 900 UNESCO Secretariat 5 000 by the end of 2020 All UNESCO Member States by the end of 2020 3.2. Description of main components Component 1: The Natlaws Database is improved and updated on a regular basis Activity 1: Improvement of the current database. For the last 12 years, the Natlaws database has operated through a user-friendly and quickly accessible method, which includes three steps: 1) Choosing the type of search - Free search: To search rapidly for one or more items ( and/or available to expand or limit the search) - Closed search: To search specific fields: country, geographical region, keyword, theme, category of cultural heritage, type of normative instrument, language, year, type of document, translated document - Combined search: To search using both free and closed criteria together 2) Entering or selecting country, region and period 3)Clicking on search Search results are displayed in three columns: country, year and title. Results are sorted by ascending alphabetical order by State name (country), by descending order by year (from the oldest to the most recent) and by ascending alphabetical order by document title (in the same country and the same year). 6
As of July 2017, the Natlaws database is currently being migrated from legacy system (Simplify) to Drupal 7. The website s graphic design is also currently being changed. In this third phase of the project, the Secretariat aims at improving the database though the following proposals: a) Creating a snapshot for each country that has submitted its legislation to the database. This snapshot - or checklist - will show whether the existing legislation of the country includes items such as state ownership, definition of cultural heritage, export-import restrictions etc. The items composing this checklist will be carefully selected by the Secretariat. This checklist will also include the relevant Article of the relevant Law. For example: XXX country - Definition of Cultural Property Yes (x ) No ( ) reference: Art. xxxx - State Ownership Yes ( ) No (x) reference: - - Import restrictions yes (x) No ( ) reference: Art xxxx - Export restrictions Yes ( ) No (x) reference: - This will allow both UNESCO and the database users to see the legislations deficiencies, and will serve as a very useful needs assessment tool with a view to provide technical assistance to UNESCO Member States. Furthermore, it will allow customs of police authorities to use the database faster when the situation requires it. A legal expert will be hired at the beginning of the implementation period and during a period of six months to analyze the existing legislations. 3 additional contracts will be issued at the end of each implementation year for the analysis of received legislations. b) Conversion of all texts into readable PDFs Some of the legislations compiled in the Natlaws database have been scanned from paper copies and therefore it is impossible to make a quick search. The UNESCO Secretariat will contact the countries that have sent their legislations (in English or French) in this format so that proper PDF version is provided. c) Differentiation between legislation still in force and previous legislation In some cases, it is not possible to understand whether the legislation is still in force. Therefore, the database will include two new categories: current legislation (in force since ) and previous legislation (was in force until..). Activity 2: Regular update of the database The Secretariat will pursue the submission of new and/or updated national cultural legislation of UNESCO s Member States and observers and will work in close coordination with the relevant UNESCO Field Offices, to follow the execution of the official translation contracts of the national legislation, which is available on the database website but not yet translated in English. 7
Given that some Member States do not have the financial means to translate their legislations into English or French, the Secretariat, in coordination with the donor, will draw a list of priority countries that will have access to mini-grants for the translation of their legislations. Furthermore, UNESCO will start using Google Analytics specially configured to track PDF downloads - for coming up with statistics on the number of searches and print out from the database. Component 2: The awareness about the Natlaws database is strengthened Activity 1. Production and distribution of a multilingual brochure Since the inception of the project in 2005, a brochure in the six official languages of the Organization has been drafted, updated and distributed on a regular basis. In this third phase of the project, the Secretariat will ensure the continuation of this activity and improve its quality and distribution, as follows: - Contents of the brochure: In addition to the information already provided on the database (goal, beneficiaries, information on how to use the database, figures and statistics) the new version of the brochure will also include infographics on the database, as well as a brief summary of UNESCO s action in the field of the fight against the illicit trafficking in cultural property. -Distribution of the brochure: Since the beginning of the project, UNESCO has distributed the brochure on the occasion of bilateral consultations, in advocacy and capacity-building meetings and statutory meetings. In this third phase, the Secretariat will continue this line of action and, in addition, will also take a more methodological approach through regular contact with Field Offices and National Commissions to UNESCO, which will disseminate the brochure through their networks (relevant departments concerned with the protection of cultural property, universities, etc); - Periodicity of the brochure: the brochure will be updated, printed and distributed on a yearly basis throughout the implementation period. Additional communication materials, such as kakemonos and USB cards, will also be produced. Activity 2. Production of tutorials Two tutorials will be produced in order to a) guide the relevant authorities on how to submit legislations to the database b) guide potential users on how to use the database, as well as on its potential as a tool for protecting cultural heritage. The tutorials will be embedded in the database website, and will also be shown in technical and advocacy trainings. Activity 3. Production and dissemination of a newsletter The newsletter will include statistics, number countries that have recently submitted their legislations, upcoming activities, announcements and other relevant information. It will be sent on a monthly basis to over 1400 subscribers in English and French. In this third phase of the project, the Secretariat will seek to increase the number of suscribers to the newsletter. 8
Activity 4. Twitter account Starting in 2012, a specific Twitter account was created for the NatLaws database. https://twitter.com/natlawsdatabase, which as of July 2017 has 362 followers. In order to boost the project s visibility, during this new phase, all communications will be posted on the official UNESCO twitter account. 3.3. Cross-cutting issues The fight against the illicit trafficking in cultural property is now at the core of the international security agenda, as reflected in the aforementioned UN Security Council Resolutions 2199 (February 2015) and 2253 (December 2015). This is why the project will address cross-cutting issues such as terrorism financing, money laundering, the rule of law, post-conflict recovery, customs and border control, police, respect for cultural diversity, and fighting against other forms of illicit trafficking. Furthemore, the database is also used in support of UNESCO s other culture conventions. For example, national laws in the database are referenced as part of Periodic Reporting for the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and are available on the World Heritage Centre s website. 3.4. Risks and Assumptions Based on the growing interest of the international community in this issue and the success of the database over the last 12 years, it is assumed that the project will benefit from the required support from UNESCO Member States. The lack of means of some Member States to provide and translate the relevant legislations is a risk associated to the action. In order to solve this, the aforementioned grant will provide support to a number of countries. 3.5. Sustainability of the Action The UNESCO database is a tool that is widely used among UNESCO Member States. Therefore, the direct involvement and mobilization of all main actors at a national level, both separately and in a coordinated manner, is also expected to ensure local ownership and contribute to the overall sustainability of results. 4. Implementation of the Action 4.1. Indicative Implementation Period The indicative operational implementation period of this action is of 3 years. 4.2. Implementation Modalities The project will be implemented by UNESCO. The Culture Sector s Movable Heritage and Museums Section will take the lead for the coordination of the project. Furthermore, a database manager will be contracted at the beginning of the project. Among others, his/her will be doing the following tasks: 9
- Pursue the submission of new and/or updated national cultural legislation of UNESCO s Member States and observers; - Make sure all relevant legislations are online; - Follow-up, in close coordination with the relevant UNESCO Field Offices, the execution of the official translation contracts of the national legislation, available on the database website but not yet translated in English; - Contact those countries that need to resend their legislation in a readable form; - Come up with the relevant statistics; - Coordinate the awareness-raising activities described in Component 2; - Manage the translation grants; - Ensure the visibility of the project on UNESCO s main website and social media. 4.3. Geographic Scope The project has a global scope. 4.4. Indicative Budget The indicative budget is USD 673 736. 4.5. Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Regular monitoring will be undertaken by UNESCO to ensure that the implementation of the project respects its work plan, budget and timeframe. There is no external evaluation foreseen for this project. It should also be noted that every UNESCO project is monitored through the System of Information on Strategies, Tasks and the Evaluation of Results (SISTER). The system follows a Results-Based Management approach. Every six months, the responsible officers at the project update SISTER on the achievement of results for each activity. Information is also provided on key challenges and lessons learned, and on efforts made to ensure cost-effectiveness/efficiency and sustainability of the activity. 4.6. Communication and Visibility UNESCO will take all appropriate measures to communicate and acknowledge the donor s support for this programme. The Movable Heritage and Museums Section of the UNESCO Culture Sector will be especially responsible for integrating the project within the Organization s overall communication efforts related to cultural heritage protection at global level. In this regard, the visibility and communication on the project will be in line with the UNESCO communication on the issue of fighting against 10