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International Conference on

“Protecting Cultural Heritage as a Common Good of Humanity:

A Challenge for Criminal Justice”

UNODC and the fight against illicit trafficking in cultural property

Sara Greenblatt,

Chief, Organized Crime Branch,

Division for Treaty Affairs, UNODC

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very pleased to be part of this panel today and to have the opportunity to talk about the work that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is conducting in the fight against illicit trafficking in cultural property.

As mentioned by Mr. John Sandage in his speech, several resolutions have been adopted – in recent years – both by the General Assembly[1] and the Economic and Social Council[2], with a view to strengthening the crime prevention and criminal justice responses to the protection of cultural property, in order to address the illicit trafficking in cultural property, which has become a considerable source of profit for organized criminal groups. Research and data collection on this subject are relatively recent, but in a 2011 publication,[3] UNODC estimated that the proceeds of transnational crime related to art and cultural property amounted to about 0,8% of all illicit financial flows, between 3.4 and 6.3 billion dollars.

In addition to the attention that this topic has generated within the General Assembly and ECOSOC, other UN bodies – such as the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice – have discussed and agreed on ways in which the international community can better prevent and combat the illicit trafficking in cultural property.

This multilateral process of intergovernmental negotiations has resulted in a comprehensive mandate for the UNODC, which includes concrete cooperation with UNESCO (with whom I am pleased to share the podium today) and with other relevant international organizations.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like now to provide an overview of the key mandates resulting from these intergovernmental processes, which UNODC has been entrusted to implement with regard to combating the illicit trafficking in cultural property.

First, I would like to refer to the work of the open-ended intergovernmental expert group meeting on protection against trafficking in cultural property, which is the most specialized intergovernmental body on the subject within the UN infrastructure. The creation of this expert group was mandated by ECOSOC in 2004, to submit relevant recommendations to the Crime Commission. To date, the expert group has met in Vienna twice,[4] with an upcoming third meeting already scheduled for January 2014.

In addition to formulating recommendations on a broad number of subjects, such as: prevention, criminalization, international instruments, cooperation, awareness-raising, capacity-building, and the use of new technologies,[5] the expert group has predominantly focused on two specific areas of work, namely: the development of the draft specific guidelines for crime prevention and criminal justice responses with respect to trafficking in cultural property and the possible improvement and potential utility of the model treaty for the prevention of crimes that infringe on the cultural heritage of peoples in the form of movable property.

With regard to the development of the draft specific guidelines, UNODC has convened a number of formal and informal meetings, the first of which took place in November 2011, in which experts, acting in their personal capacity, met in Vienna to discuss the first draft of such guidelines. Professor Stefano Manacorda, ISPAC Deputy Chair and Director, who was recruited as a consultant by UNODC, prepared this draft, which was presented and discussed at length by Member States at the second meeting of the open-ended intergovernmental expert group on protection against trafficking in cultural property, held in June 2012.

As mentioned earlier, UNODC will reconvene this expert group in January 2014, with a view to reviewing and finalizing the draft specific guidelines. It is expected that, once finalized, the guidelines will be submitted to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its twenty-third session, and brought to the attention of the Conference of the Parties to the UNTOC Convention in October 2014.

The current version of the guidelines was drafted based on a review of current practices and initiatives in several countries in addressing the problem of trafficking in cultural property. They provide comprehensive coverage of the most relevant topics, with a particular focus on:

Ø  prevention strategies (including information and data collection, the role of cultural institutions and private sector, monitoring, as well as education and public awareness);

Ø  criminal justice policies (including adherence and implementation of relevant international treaties, the criminalization of specific harmful conduct or the establishment of administrative offences, corporate liability, seizure and confiscation and investigative measures); and

Ø  related law enforcement and judicial cooperation (including jurisdictional basis, extradition, international seizure and confiscation, police and investigative cooperation, and return, restitution and repatriation of cultural property).

Once finalized, the guidelines could assist law- and policymakers, as well as law enforcement officers, prosecutors, magistrates, public and private institutions in effectively protecting cultural property from being trafficked.

The model treaty for the prevention of crimes that infringe on the cultural heritage of peoples in the form of movable property has also been the object of extensive consultations and exchange of views. Member States have expressed a variety of opinions underlining the need to modernize and update this instrument. In light of ECOSOC resolution 2013/31,[6] the review of the model treaty remains a work in progress and member States, as well as international organizations, are expected to continue submitting their comments to the Secretariat.

In addition to these intergovernmental processes taking place within the expert group on protection against trafficking in cultural property, the Conference of the Parties to the UNTOC Convention has mandated the two working groups, on technical assistance and on international cooperation, to examine the subject of illicit trafficking in cultural property and to submit specific recommendations for further consideration by the Conference. In this regard, both working groups held a joint session on trafficking in cultural property, on the margins of the sixth Conference of the Parties (Vienna, 18 October 2012). After extensive discussion, the joint session agreed on a set of recommendations aimed at promoting the practical application of the UNTOC Convention, including, inter alia, the designation of national focal points to facilitate international cooperation, the undertaking of awareness-raising activities, and the submission of data from Member States on trafficking in cultural property.

I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that ECOSOC resolution 2013/31[7] further invites Member States to consider reviewing their legal frameworks, with a view to providing the most extensive international cooperation possible, to fully address the issue of trafficking in cultural property and it also invites Member States to make trafficking in cultural property, including stealing and looting at archaeological and other cultural sites, a serious crime, as defined in Article 2 of the UNTOC Convention, with a view to fully utilizing that Convention, which has been ratified by 179 States Parties, for promoting international cooperation in fighting all forms and aspects of trafficking in cultural property and related offences.

It is important to underline the transnational dimension of illicit trafficking in cultural property, which commonly involves different actors in different countries, importing and exporting cultural movable property. Every single State is affected by negative consequences of this business, irrespective of whether, at this moment, specific countries are predominantly source or predominantly final destinations of this kind of illicit trade. Some difficulties that the transnational character of illicit trafficking in cultural property entails become clear considering that, nowadays, most illicit transactions are conducted online. This often presents challenges for evidence collection (including of the illicit provenance of the cultural good) as well as for the decision-making as to the most appropriate country to exercise jurisdiction.

Given the transnational nature of the illicit trafficking in cultural property, international cooperation in criminal matters, including extradition and mutual legal assistance, is essential to combat this form of crime. UNODC has undertaken long-standing work in this area, and I wish to refer to some of the relevant tools maintained by our Office:

-  the Directory of Competent National Authorities handling requests for extradition and mutual legal assistance (including information on national requirements for making requests, their acceptance, or rejection, of international conventions as the legal basis for requests, and the indication of whether requests can be made through INTERPOL);

-  the Mutual Legal Assistance Request Writer Tool, to assist States with the drafting of MLA requests, facilitating and strengthening international cooperation in criminal matters;

-  The SHERLOC (SHaring Electronic Resources and Laws against Organized Crime) Knowledge Management Portal, which is a national legislation and case law database under development. It will, among other features, contain relevant case law in thematic areas of our work, including illicit trafficking in cultural property.[8] We expect to launch this Portal on time for the next Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in May 2014.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the context of all these activities, UNODC has played a considerable role in producing substantive documents focusing on topics such as the application of the UNTOC Convention by its States Parties with respect to criminal offences against cultural property. In so doing, UNODC has always taken stock of the inputs provided by Member States and relevant international organizations.

It is hoped that this momentum can be translated into concrete actions, whereby Member States will be better prepared to confront this specific type of transnational crime, which on the one hand generates considerable illicit income for organized criminal groups, but on the other deprives us of the knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of our cultural heritage.

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[1] GA resolution 66/180 and the resolution, soon to be adopted, approved by ECOSOC in its resolution 2013/31.

[2] ECOSOC resolutions 2004/34, 2008/23, 2010/19..

[3] UNODC, Estimating illicit financial flows resulting from drug trafficking and other transnational organized crimes, Research report, 2011.

[4] The first meeting was held in Vienna from 24 to 26 November 2009. The second meeting was held from 27 to 29 June 2012. The third meeting is scheduled to be held from 15 to 17 January 2014.

[5] These recommendations are included in document UNODC/CCPCJ/EG.1/2009/2

[6] The text of which is expected to be adopted by the General Assembly at its current session.

[7] The text of which is expected to be adopted by the General Assembly at its current session.

[8] It will also contain a reference/weblink to the UNESCO Database of National Cultural Heritage Laws.