Mazapan Model United Nations Simulation 2018

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and

Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Background Guide: Topic B Combating Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Artifacts

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Mazapan Model United Nations Simulation

Dear Delegates,

It is truly our pleasure to invite and welcome you to Mazapan Model United Nations

Simulation 2018. As you may have read beforehand UNESCO’s chairs for this simulation are

Angela Fredrick and Natalia Nasser. We are looking forward to meeting each and every one of

you. We hope that this year’s theme on Building Bridges and the committee’s agenda grasps

your attention and interest as we have been working hard to host you.

Let’s take into consideration that Building Bridges, not walls is UNESCO’s overall goal.

UNESCO was founded with the sole objective of promoting international cooperation and

facilitating the exchange of information in the fields of education, science, culture, and

communications. This year agenda revolves around contributing to the building of peace,

through proper communication and intercultural development which can only be attained

through your contribution. May this be a platform through which you can make your proposals

and ideas heard.

We are excited to see you use this academic activity to meet new people and friends as

you simultaneously expand your general culture and knowledge. Do not hesitate in

communicating if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

Sincerely,

Your chairs Angela Fredrick and Natalia Nasser

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Table of Contents Introduction to the Committee 4

History 4 Present Day 5 Mission Statement 6 Country List 7

Topic B: Combating Illicit Trafficking and Cultural Artifacts Overview 8 International and Regional Framework 9 The Destruction of Antiquity 11

Africa 11 China 11 Haiti 11 Italy 11 Mayan Heritage 11 Turkey 12 Bulgaria 12 Nigeria 12 Cambodia 12 United States of America 12 Bangladesh 12

Wars and Armed Conflicts 13 Iraq 13 Libya 13 Mali 13 Syria 14 Egypt 14 Afghanistan 14 Bangladesh 14 Zaire 14

World Heritage Properties 15 Bibliography 16

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Introduction to the Committee

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, known by its

acronym, UNESCO is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that was outlined in the

constitution signed November 16, 1945. The constitution, which entered into force in 1946,

called for the promotion of international collaboration in education, science, and culture. It works

to safeguard the world’s cultural heritage, having the final say on whether a property is inscribed

on the World Heritage List. It aims to empower, educate, and inspire young people, reaching out

to them, responding to their expectations and ideas, and fostering useful and long-lasting skills. It

implements its activities through the five programme areas: education, natural sciences, and

social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information.

UNESCO's aim is "to contribute to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty,

sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture,

communication and information". Other priorities of the organization include attaining quality

Education For All and lifelong learning, addressing emerging social and ethical challenges,

fostering cultural diversity, a culture of peace and building inclusive knowledge societies

through information and communication

History

UNESCO’s initial emphasis was on rebuilding schools, libraries, and museums that had been

destroyed in Europe during World War II. Since then its activities have been mainly facilitative,

aimed at assisting, supporting, and complementing the national efforts of member states to

eliminate illiteracy and to extend free education.

As many less-developed countries joined the UN beginning in the 1950s, UNESCO

began to devote more resources to their problems, which included poverty, high rates of

illiteracy, and underdevelopment. During the 1980s UNESCO was criticized by the United States

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and other countries for its alleged anti-Western approach to cultural issues and for the sustained

expansion of its budget. These issues prompted the United States to withdraw from the

organization in 1984, and the United Kingdom and Singapore withdrew a year later. After the

election victory of the Labour Party in 1997, the United Kingdom rejoined UNESCO, and the

United States and Singapore followed suit in 2003 and 2007, respectively. In 2011 UNESCO

approved full membership for Palestine. Following the vote, the United States announced that it

would no longer pay dues to the organization, because of congressional legislation that

prohibited the financing of any UN agency that admitted Palestine as a full member. Because of

its unpaid dues, the United States lost its voting rights in UNESCO in 2013.

Present Day

In 2017 U.S. officials, citing “anti-Israel bias” and the size of U.S. arrears to the

organization, announced that the United States would leave UNESCO again at year’s end

(https://youtu.be/Lnv497QZh78). Israel itself remained a member. Besides its support of

educational and science programs, UNESCO is also involved in efforts to protect the natural

environment and humanity’s common cultural heritage. For example, in the 1960s UNESCO

helped sponsor efforts to save ancient Egyptian monuments from the waters of the Aswan High

Dam, and in 1972 it sponsored an international agreement to establish a World Heritage List of

cultural sites and natural areas that would enjoy government protection. In the 1980s a

controversial study by UNESCO’s International Commission for the Study of Communication

Problems, headed by the Irish statesman and Nobel Peace laureate Seán MacBride, proposed a

New World Information and Communication Order that would treat communication and freedom

of information as basic human rights and seek to eliminate the gap in communications

capabilities between developing and developed countries.

Each member state has one vote in UNESCO’s General Conference, which meets every

two years to set the agency’s budget, its program of activities, and the scale of contributions

made by member states to the agency. The 58-member Executive Board, which is elected by the

General Conference, generally meets twice each year to give advice and direction to the agency’s

work. The Secretariat is the agency’s backbone and is headed by a director general appointed by

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the General Conference for a six-year term. About 200 national commissions, composed of local

experts, serve as governmental advisory bodies in their respective states. Most work occurs in

special commissions and committees convened with expert participation. Prominent examples

include the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (1961– ), the World Commission on

Culture and Development (1992–99), and the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific

Knowledge and Technology (1998– ). The findings of these commissions are regularly published

by UNESCO.

Mission Statement

UNESCO’s mission is to contribute to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty,

sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture,

communication and information. The Organization focuses, in particular, on two global

priorities:

● Africa

● Gender equality

And on a number of overarching objectives:

● Attaining quality education for all and lifelong learning

● Mobilizing science knowledge and policy for sustainable development

● Addressing emerging social and ethical challenges

● Fostering cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and a culture of peace

● Building inclusive knowledge societies through information and communication

Country List ● Australia

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● Argentina

● Bahrain

● Belgium

● Costa Rica

● Czech Republic

● China

● Denmark

● Ecuador

● El Salvador

● Egypt

● Germany

● Greece

● India

● Indonesia

● Nepal

● Morocco

● Spain

● South Africa

● United States of America

● Venezuela

● Panama

● Peru

Topic B: Combating Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Artifacts Overview

Introduction and Background of Issue

Combating illicit trafficking has become a more frequent issue due to the flourishing of the black

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market. This issue affects the integrity of the items, the sites they came from, and the cultural heritage of the nations affected. This has become a frequent activity practiced by criminal organizations and it endangers the preservation of world cultural diversity. Illicit trafficking of cultural properties includes removing these items from their location and transporting them to be sold on other countries. Acquisition occurs when cultural heritage sites are being plundered during armed conflicts it illegal excavations or robberies. Economically unstable countries (regions in South América,

Africa, and Asia) are particularly unprotected from the illicit trafficking of their cultural heritage. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the international community have proposed different solutions and measures address the safeguard of the cultural heritage. Cultural heritage refers to any movable part of property of significant importance to everyone's cultural heritage. These can 1

include, archives, literature, objects of religion, art, architecture, and history. The protection of cultural

heritage is recognized by the international community and its purpose is to build or have a sustainable legacy for the next generations.

International and Regional Framework

Three frameworks initiated by UNESCO play a significant role in combating the illicit trafficking of cultural properties.UNESCO convened Member States in 1954 to address the protection of cultural property during internal and international armed conflicts. Parties adopted the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954) and introduced protection procedures for cultural properties threatened by armed conflicts. These new measures included a distinctive emblem, the Blue Shield, which is used on 2

sites of a high cultural value by the International Committee of the Blue Shield to offer special protection during armed conflicts. These sites refer to refuges and centers containing several cultural artifacts, such as museums and archaeological sites, and they must be listed in the International Register of Cultural Property under Special Protection to benefit from special

1 Intergovernmental Conference on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, Convention for the

Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, 1954, pp. 9-10.

2 Ibid

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protection measures. The registration of a site can be submitted by its country of origin to the Director-General of UNESCO and must not be objected by other States parties of the Convention. Two Protocols were supplemented to the Convention, the latest (1999) giving enhanced special protection measures to cultural properties of exceptional cultural value and sanctions do in the event of serious transgressions to the Convention against cultural properties. 3

The General Conference accepted to extend the cultural property to address illicit trafficking of cultural heritage in peacetime. The new measures included the addition of cultural properties by governments in their national registries and the safeguarded transport between countries organized by agencies. These measures differ from the mechanisms of the 1954 Convention because cultural properties protected by the Convention extend to movable cultural properties, such as literature and art. Following the 1970 Conference, the UN General Assembly invited Member States to adhere to the Convention in 1976 and reaffirmed that all steps taken by countries to combat illicit trafficking of cultural properties are necessary for the future of cultural heritage.333 The General Assembly also presents the restitution of cultural artifacts to their country of origin as a major step toward an international cooperation to preserve cultural heritage for future generations.

The 1970 Convention was a major step toward the preservation of cultural heritage, inadequacy in the legislation has limited its efficiency to protect cultural artifacts. Only governments were authorized to subscribe cultural properties. UNESCO requested for the Unification of Private Law in 1984 to address this issues. The UNIDROIT conference is different from the 1970 convention because it provides instruments previously restricted to governments to private owners. This was done in order to support the protection of a large proportion of cultural properties . The 1970 and 1995 Conventions are complementary and remain the two most 4

important international frameworks on combating illicit trafficking of cultural properties . The 5

United Nations General Assembly requested for the preservation of cultural heritage, a basic right for all countries. The General Assembly adopted Transformation our World: the 2030

3 Heritage For Peace, Hague Convention and its two protocols.

4 Prott, UNESCO and UNIDROIT: a Partnership against Trafficking in Cultural Objects, 1996, p. 62. 5 UN General Assembly, International Guidelines for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Responses with Respect to

Trafficking in Cultural Property and Other Related Offences (A/RES/69/196), 2015, p. 1.

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Agenda for Sustainable Development, a new list of actions to achieve global sustainable development by 2030 containing 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 . By 6

establishing the need to strengthen global efforts on the preservation of the world’s cultural heritage and to reduce financial revenues of criminal and terrorist organizations from illicit trade of stolen goods through SDGs 11 and 16 respectively, the General Assembly has reiterated the necessity to combat illicit trafficking of cultural properties to build peaceful and inclusive societies and institutions for sustainable development. The UN Security Council has also decided that all Member States must prevent the financing of terrorist acts that threaten global security and has addressed the illicit trafficking of cultural properties as a financial leverage for terrorism activities. The Security Council has commended UNESCO's long lasting contribution to the 7

protection of the world’s cultural heritage in peril and has requested the body to pursue assistance to Member States in countering destruction and trafficking of cultural properties. It has further called upon Member States to take appropriate steps to return artifacts stolen from conflict areas, recognized as a necessity to re-establish and maintain peace in areas ravaged by armed conflicts.

The destruction of antiquity

Africa According to Alain Godonou, former Director of the Ecole du patrimoine africain (EPA) and now Director of UNESCO’s Division of Cultural Objects and Intangible Heritage, most African countries have lost 95% of their cultural property.

China 1.6 million cultural objects from China are estimated to be scattered in 200 museums in 47 countries. China owns more than 400,000 archaeological sites, but since the 80s, thefts in museums increased by one third. In 10 years, 30,000 artifacts were found by the customs of Shenzhen.

Haiti

6 General Assembly, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (A/RES/70/1), 2015. 7 UN Security Council, Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts (S/RES/1373(2001)), 2001.

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The earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010 devastated its capital region, killing 300,000, leaving over a million people homeless, and a nation in ruins. Haiti‘s museums, churches, art galleries, libraries, and archives were destroyed, damaged, or endangered. Troves of historical books and documents, treasured artistic works and architectural features, and artifacts of great cultural significance all were at risk of being lost forever.

Italy In Italy, in Cerveteri, 400 to 550 Etruscan tombs were looted after the end of World War II. In 1995, at the free port of Geneva, contained 6,000 artifacts. A 58-page inventory of these artifacts was compiled. Medici has been condemned also for “complicity in the destruction of at least 200,000 archaeological sites”; and is also “suspected of looting 20,000 artifacts illegally excavated” . 8

Mayan Heritage At least 1,000 ceramic objects, worth more than US$10 million, are illicitly excavated every month in the Mayan region of Central America. In 1970, an Italian dealer tried to export illegally 12,000 artifacts from Ecuador, where hundreds of sites were damaged. In Belize, a researcher points out that in some archaeological sites only 50 out of 200 people conducting excavations are official archaeologists.

Turkey In Turkey, from 1993 to 1995 at least 17,500 investigations have been opened for looting of art.

Bulgaria In 1992 alone, 5,000 icons disappeared from Bulgarian churches. Former-Czechoslovakia In the former-Czechoslovakia a third of churches were robbed in the 1990s. 20,000 artifacts illicitly exported from the country every day; from 1993 to 1996, 3,580 thefts from churches and sacred places were reported, 1,250 from castles, 750 from museums, and 1,400 from private apartments. 9

8 Roma, procedimento numero 40402/00 a carico di Giacomo Medici, Marion True, Robert Hecht e altri, sentenza del Gup Guglielmo Muntoni, 13.12.2004.

9E de Roux e R. P. Paringaux, Razzia sur l’art, Paris, 1999, pag 95.

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Nigeria In Nigeria, during the 90s, over 400 artifacts have been stolen from museums and other institutions. The looting of cultural objects continues. 10

Cambodia Since 1975, hundreds of Buddha statues near Angkor Wat have been mutilated, many of them decapitated. UNESCO estimates that such events happen once a day.

United States of America In the United States, a survey conducted in 1991 shows that in Nebraska 28% of sites of particular importance have been damaged by illegal excavators looking for fossils.

Bangladesh From a collection of ancient manuscripts, from 750 AD to 1200 AD, only one remains in Bangladesh. The others are scattered around the world.

Wars and Armed Conflicts

Iraq In 1991, during the Gulf War, 3,000 known antiquities disappeared in Iraq. Thousands of other non-inventoried objects were also removed from ancient sites. During the same time, the number of artifacts for sale in New York and London increased in a marked measure. During the operations against Saddam Hussein, around 15,000 artifacts were stolen from the Baghdad Museum. Seven thousand of those, were recovered; 2,000 in the USA, 250 in Switzerland, 100 by Italian Carabinieri, 2,000 were stopped in Jordan . Others in Beirut and Switzerland while in 11

10 Da qui, di nuovo in N. Brodie, J. Doole, P. Watson, cit.

11 D. George, The looting of the Iraq National Museum, in P. Stone, cit.

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transit to New York. But the statue of Entemena, King of Lagash (2,450 BC) has not been recovered to date. The Magistrate of the State of Delaware (USA) has restituted 25 cuneiform slabs to Iraq, from where they had been robbed. They were found in July 2010 by an art dealer in California. Several others processes of restitution are still ongoing. Libya Libya boasts an extremely rich cultural heritage that unfortunately has suffered years of neglect and conflict. After days and months of conflict, there is still concern from the international community about the state of the Libyan cultural heritage and its role in the future of the country. Improving the protection of Libya’s heritage sites and valuable collections of antiquities is of pressing importance. There have been a number of incidents of vandalism and theft from archaeological sites and museums. Such thefts were ongoing long before the revolution. In 2006 the BBC reported that at least 90 important items had been stolen from Tripoli Museum since 1988, due to inadequate security. Two valuable statue fragments have been returned to Libya from Europe this year having been recognized as stolen.

Mali There was a lot of damage done to Timbuktu's heritage due to the fighting between the government forces and the Tuareg rebels. In 2013, Lazare Eloundou Assomo of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Centre said the destruction is “even more alarming than we thought.” During an official visit in 2013, it was discovered that 14 of Timbuktu mausoleums, including those that are part of the UNESCO World Heritage sites, were totally destroyed. In addition, the fighting destroyed parts of the Djingareyber Mosque, one of three madrassas comprising the University of Timbuktu. It is believed to have been built around 1327, mostly out of straw and wood with some limestone reinforcements.

Syria The Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) has recently reported a dramatic rise in illegal excavations of archaeological sites and looting of museums in Syria, which increases the threat of illicit trafficking of cultural property

Egypt The recent events in Egypt are only the latest in which objects and places of art have been endangered by wars or armed conflicts. During the protests against Hosni Mubarak, archaeological sites of great importance have been looted. According to a declaration of Zahi Hawass, ancient tombs at Saqqara and Abusir, as well as deposits in Saqqara and at the University of Cairo were looted. At least nine artifacts were robbed from the National Museum of Cairo.

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Afghanistan In 1993, when the staff of the Museum of Kabul was sacked during the withdrawal of Russian troops, the robbers used the same guides of the museum to search out the best pieces.

Bangladesh At the end of the Independence War in Bangladesh (1971) 2,000 Hindu temples were destroyed or seriously damaged, and 6,000 sculptures were exported by smugglers.

Zaire During the coup d’état of 1997, the best pieces were robbed from the deposits of the National Museum of Zaire, Kinshasa. Fortunately, an accurate inventory exists.

World Heritage Properties ● Area de Conservación Guanacaste

● Cape Floral Region Protected Areas

● Chan Chan Archaeological Zone

● Chavin (Archaeological Site)

● Golden Mountains of Altai

● Great Barrier Reef

● Greater Blue Mountains Area

● Historic Centre of Český Krumlov

● Historic Centre of Prague

● Huascarán National Park

● Ichkeul National Park

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● Ilulissat Icefjord

● Kilimanjaro National Park

● Komodo National Park

● Maritime Greenwich

● Ouadi Qadisha (the Holy Valley) and the Forest of the Cedars of God (Horsh Arz el-Rab)

● Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey including Saint Margaret’s Church

● Sagarmatha National Park

● Sundarbans National Park

● Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch

● The Sundarbans

● Timbuktu

● Tower of London

● Venice and its Lagoon

● Wet Tropics of Queensland

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Mingst, K. (2017). UNESCO INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION. In Encyclopædia

Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/UNESCO

Brodie, N. (2015). The Internet Market in Antiquities. In F. Desmarais (Ed.), Countering Illicit

Traffic in Cultural Goods: The Global Challenge of Protecting the World’s Heritage (pp. 11-20).

Paris: International Council of Museums. Retrieved 3 October 2017 from:

http://icom.museum/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/publications/Book_observatory_illicit_traffic_ve

rsion_issuu.pdf

Intergovernmental Conference on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed

Conflict. (1954). Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed

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http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13637&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=

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Theft: A Final Cry for the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention, 36 BROOK. J. INT’L L. 751, 755

(2011).

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Vienna International Centre PO Box 500 A 1400 Vienna Austria

http://www.unodc.org

UNIDROIT

International Institute for the unification of Private Law 28, Via Panisperna 00184 Roma Italy

info@unidroit.org

THE FIGHT AGAINST THE ILLICIT TRAFFICKING OF CULTURAL OBJECTS

http://www.unesco.org/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/pdf/2013_INFOKIT_1970_EN.pdf

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Illegally Exported Cultural Objects. Retrieved 10 September 2017 from:

http://www.unidroit.org/instruments/cultural-property/ 1995- convention

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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (n.d.). “Save Culture, end

trafficking”. New infographic tells you all about UNESCO’s work in combating illicit trafficking.

Retrieved 16 September 2017 from:

http://www.unite4heritage.org

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