First meeting of the special committee to review the practical operation of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention. The President of UNIDROIT has decided to convene this meeting which will take place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 19 June 2012.

• General overview of the Convention  English  French   Spanish

 

• UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects (Rome, 1995) , was drafted in a single original in the English and French languages, both texts being equally authentic

Unofficial translations of the Convention are available in:

• Arabic language version prepared by the UNESCO Iraq Bureau
• Chinese language version prepared by UNESCO
• Dutch language version prepared by the Belgian Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs
• German language version prepared by the Swiss Federal Office for Culture
• Greek language version
• Italian language version
• Russian language version prepared by UNESCO
• Spanish language version authorised by the UNIDROIT Secretariat
• Swedish language version prepared by the Ministry of Culture
• Vietnamese language version

• Explanatory Report on the UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects French , Arabic (translation prepared by the UNESCO Iraq Bureau).

 

• Model legislative provisions on State ownership of undiscovered cultural objects.These Model Provisions, established by a group of experts convened by the UNESCO and UNIDROIT Secretariats, are intended to assist domestic bodies in the establishment of a normative framework for heritage protection, to adopt effective legislation for the establishment and recognition of the State´s ownership of undiscovered cultural objects with a view, inter alia, to facilitating restitution in case of unlawful removal. They are followed by guidelines aimed at better understanding the provisions.

 

• Status of the UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects - Signatures, Ratifications, Accessions [draft model instruments for the ratification, acceptance, approval and accession; formalities to be carried out by the State concerned]

 

• How to become a Party to the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects

 

• Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of the Draft UNIDROIT Convention on the International Return of Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, Rome, 7 to 24 June 1995 [Participants, Documents of the Conference, Acts and Proceedings, Depositary]

 

• Preparatory work [documents of the Study Group and of the Committee of governmental experts (1988 to 1994)]

 

• Information note to facilitate the understanding of the complementarity between, and the functioning of, the 1970 UNESCO Convention and the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention [http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001399/139969E.pdf]

 

• Useful link: UNESCO Cultural Heritage Laws Database