UN General Assembly Resolution (A/RES/48/15) on the Return or Restitution of Cultural Property to the Countries of Origin (2 Nov 93). in United States

UN General Assembly Resolution (A/RES/48/15) on the Return or Restitution of Cultural Property to the Countries of Origin (2 Nov 93).

A/RES/48/15
47th plenary meeting
2 November 1993

Return or restitution of cultural property
to the countries of origin

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolutions 3026 A (XXVII) of 18 December 1972, 3148
(XXVIII) of 14 December 1973, 3187 (XXVIII) of 18 December 1973, 3391
(XXX) of 19 November 1975, 31/40 of 30 November 1976, 32/18 of 11
November 1977, 33/50 of 14 December 1978, 34/64 of 29 November 1979,
35/127 and 35/128 of 11 December 1980, 36/64 of 27 November 1981, 38/34
of 25 November 1983, 40/19 of 21 November 1985, 42/7 of 22 October 1987,
44/18 of 6 November 1989 and 46/10 of 22 October 1991,

Recalling also the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and
Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of
Cultural Property adopted on 14 November 1970 by the General Conference
of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,

Taking note with satisfaction of the report of the
Secretary-General submitted in cooperation with the Director-General of
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,

Noting with satisfaction that, following its appeal, other Member
States have become parties to the Convention,

Aware of the importance attached by the countries of origin to the
return of cultural property which is of fundamental spiritual and
cultural value to them, so that they may constitute collections
representative of their cultural heritage,

Reaffirming the importance of inventories as an essential tool for
the understanding and protection of cultural property and for the
identification of dispersed heritage and as a contribution to the
advancement of scientific and artistic knowledge and intercultural
communication,

Deeply concerned at the clandestine excavations and the illicit
traffic in cultural property that continue to impoverish the cultural
heritage of all peoples,

Again supporting the solemn appeal made on 7 June 1978 by the
Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization for the return of irreplaceable cultural heritage
to those who created it,

1. 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;

2. 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 cooperation between developed
and developing countries;

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

4. 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;

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

6. Also 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 all necessary
documentation, particularly photographs of each item;

7. Also 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;

8. Appeals to Member States to cooperate 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;

9. 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 countries of origin;

10. Requests States parties to the Convention on the Means of
Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, 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
level;

11. Requests the Secretary-General, in collaboration with the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to
continue to develop all possibilities for bringing about the attainment
of the above-mentioned objectives;

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

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

14. Requests the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in
cooperation with the Director-General of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization, to submit to the General Assembly
at its fiftieth session a report on the implementation of the present
resolution;

15. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fiftieth
session the item entitled ‘Return or restitution of cultural property to
the countries of origin’.