Return or Restitution of Cultural Property to the Countries of Origin

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 20 Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin, published in 1987.

What other versions does this mandate have?

18 versions · 1979–2024

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

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2024	A/RES/79/133	Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin	5,877	81%Compare
2021	A/RES/76/16	Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin	4,811	83%Compare
2018	A/RES/73/130	Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin	4,194	72%Compare
2015	A/RES/70/76	Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin	3,423	58%Compare
2013	A/RES/67/80	Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin	2,793	51%Compare

What subjects does this mandate have?

19 subjects

Archaeological Excavations Archives Art Works Cultural Cooperation Cultural Heritage Cultural Property Cultural Property Protection Cultural Property Restitution Documents Educational Institutions International Law Inventories Legal Remedies Mass Media Museums Public Information Seabed Signatures, Accessions, Ratifications Treaties

What’s in this document?

14 operative paragraphs

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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 cooperation and to the preservation and flowering of universal 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;

Requests Member States to study the possibility of including in permits for excavations a clause requiring archaeologists and palaeontologists to provide the national authorities with photographic documentation of each object brought to light during the excavations immediately after its discovery;

2º A/42/533.

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;

Recommends that Member States should ensure that inventories of museum collections include not only the items on display but also those in storage, and that they comprise ali necessary documentation, particularly photographs of each item;

A/so invites Member States engaged in seeking the recovery of cultural and artistic treasures from the seabed, 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 Retum of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation and to conelude 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;

Requests States parties to the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit lmport, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property to keep the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization fully informed of the measures taken to ensure implementation of the Convention at the national leve);

Welcomes the steady increase in the number of States parties to the Convention;

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-fourth session a report on the implementation of the present resolution;

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

15 In_ternational Atomic Energy Agency, TheAnnual Reportfor /986 (Austria. July 1987). (GC(XXXl)/800 and Corr.1); transmitted to the members of the General Assemhly by a note of the Secretary-General 17 Resolution 2373 (XXII), annex. (A/42/458 and Corr. l).

18 See lnternational Atomic Energy Agency, Final Document.

16 See Official Records of thc General Asscmbly, Forly-second Session.

Rewlulions and Convenzions Adopzed by the Firsr Special Session of zhe Plenary Meetings, 42nd meeting General Conference. 24-26 Septcmber 1986, sect,. !-IV.

19 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Records of the General Conference, Sixteenth Session, vol. 1, Resolutions, p. 135.

21 See World Health Organization, Fortieth World Health Assembly, Geneva,

4-15 May 1987.

Resolutions and Decisions,

Annexes (WHA.40/1987/REC/I).

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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