Return or Restitution of Cultural Property to the Countries of Origin

A/RES/40/19No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 20Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin, published in 1985.

What other versions does this mandate have?

18 versions · 1979–2024

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/79/133

2024A/RES/79/133Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of originLatestCompare with previous version
2021A/RES/76/16Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of originCompare with previous version
2018A/RES/73/130Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of originCompare with previous version
2015A/RES/70/76Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of originCompare with previous version
2013A/RES/67/80Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of originCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 topics

Agenda Conferences Cultural Property Protection Cultural Property Restitution Signatures, Accessions, Ratifications Treaties

What does this mandate say?

12 operative paragraphs

Commends the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation on the work they have accomplished, in particular through the promotion of bilateral negotiations, for the return or restitution of cultural property, the preparation of inventories of movable cultural property, the reduction of illicit traffic in cultural property and the dissemination of information to the public;

Reaffirms that the restitution to a country of its objets d'art, monuments, museum pieces, archives, manuscripts, documents and any other cultural or artistic treasures contributes to the strengthening of international co-operation and to the preservation and flowering of uni-

versal cultural values through fruitful co-operation between developed and developing countries;

Recommends that Member States adopt or strengthen the necessary protective legislation with regard to their own heritage and that of other peoples;

Invites Member States to continue drawing up, in co-operation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, systematic inventories of cultural property existing in their territory and of their cultural property abroad;

Also invites Member States engaged in seeking the recovery of cultural and artistic treasures from the sea-bed, in accordance with international law, to facilitate by mutually acceptable conditions the participation of States

having a historical and cultural link with those treasures;

Appeals to Member States to co-operate closely with the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation and to conclude bilateral agreements for this purpose;

Also appeals to Member States to encourage the mass information media and educational and cultural institutions to strive to arouse a greater and more general awareness with regard to the return or restitution of cultural property to its country of origin;

Endorses the opinion expressed at the World Conference on Cultural Policies, held at Mexico City from 26 July to 6 August 1982, that the return of cultural property to its country of origin should be accompanied by the training of key personnel and technicians and the provision of the necessary facilities for the satisfactory conservation and presentation of the property restored;26 9.

Welcomes the steady increase in the number of States parties to the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property;

IO.

Invites once again those Member States that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the Convention;

Requests the Secretary-General, in co-operation with the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to submit to the General Assembly at its forty-second session a report on the implementation of the present resolution;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-second session the item entitled "Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin".

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