“For the Government of Mexico, culture is not an accessory or an ornament, but a central axis for the transformation of global realities and dynamics, through cultural diversity as the greatest wealth of nations. MONDIACULT 2022 represents a unique opportunity to continue building a common agenda, where culture is placed at the centre of the Global Development Agenda, with diversity and living cultures as protagonists of development policies, and with culture as a vehicle for peace, well-being and the generation of inclusive societies.”
Alejandra Frausto Guerrero
Secretary of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Professor Ignacio Tirado, Secretary General of UNIDROIT, together with Ms Marina Schneider, Principal Legal Officer and Treaty Depositary of UNIDROIT, attended the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development, held from 28 to 30 September 2022 in Mexico City, which brought together almost 2600 participants, 150 State delegations, 135 Ministers of Culture, 32 intergovernmental organisations, 83 non governmental organisations and 9 UN agencies, an attendance figure that surpasses any meeting organised by UNESCO so far.
In light of the transformation of the cultural sector, and the difficulties faced, the challenge was to take a look at the cultural policies that are required to build a stronger, more resilient cultural sector, rooted in opportunities for sustainable development. The participants engaged in discussions over the course of two plenary sessions, four thematic sessions and numerous side events. The Secretary General of UNIDROIT intervened as observer in the Ministerial Thematic session 2 on “Heritage and cultural diversity in crisis” and Ms Schneider moderated the Ministerial Thematic session 3 on the same subject.
Ignacio Tirado Marina Schneider
The Final Declaration was adopted by acclamation after ten months of multilateral negotiations led by UNESCO, to recognise culture as a “global public good”, adapt cultural policies to contemporary challenges and stress the importance of integrating cultural heritage and creativity into international discussions on climate change.
The Declaration also emphasised the commitment of States to intensify the fight against the illicit trafficking in cultural property and called for an open and inclusive international dialogue for the return and restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin. “A very clear consensus has emerged from practically all the Ministers who have taken the floor to recognise that this is a huge problem and to take measures which, among other things, consist of continuing to support and ratify the instruments that already exist, such as the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention which is the sole instrument establishing uniform mechanisms for the restitution of stolen or illegally exported cultural property” commented Prof. Ignacio Tirado (see paragraphs 14 and 16 of the Declaration). Mexico acceded to the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention recently and it will enter into force for Mexico on November 1st, 2022.
The adopted text also proposes that Culture be included in the UN Future Summit in 2024 and that a World Forum on Cultural Policies convened by UNESCO be held every four years, starting in 2025.
Text of the MONDIACULT Final Declaration
Text of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention
Alejandra Frausto Guerrero, Secretary of Culture of the Government of Mexico, and Ignacio Tirado, Secretary General of UNIDROIT
Ignacio Tirado, Secretary General of UNIDROIT, Alejandra Frausto Guerrero, Secretary of Culture of
the Government of Mexico, and Jorge Sánchez Cordero, member of the Governing Council of UNIDROIT
Professor Iacopo Donati is the UNIDROIT/Bank of Italy Chair Holder and is mainly responsible for assisting in the Bank Insolvency project. He is Professor of Corporate and Insolvency Law at the University of Siena, and coordinates the research project ‘Pro.Re.Ba.’ (Proportionating rules on bank crisis prevention and management to the case of retail banks), which has received funding from the Italian Ministry of University. He has previously taught corporate law at the University of Venice ‘Ca’ Foscari’, at the University of Florence and at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’.
rtered Institute of Arbitrators (London). He further holds a post-graduate diploma in law from the Kenya School of Law. Allan is also a scholar from the Hague Academy of International Law.
rofessor Ignacio Tirado was appointed Secretary-General by the Governing Council at its 97th session, and officially took office on 27 August 2018. A national of Spain, Professor Tirado (Commercial, Corporate and Insolvency Law, Universidad Autónoma of Madrid, Spain) holds a PhD from the Universities of Bologna and Autónoma de Madrid and an LLM from the University of London. Professor Tirado has been a Senior Legal Consultant at the World Bank’s Legal Vice-Presidency and Financial Sector Practice for more than nine years, having also consulted for the IMF on insolvency related matters as well as for the Asian Development Bank on commercial legal reform.
A Swedish national, Ms Lena Peters grew up in Italy where she attended an English school. In 1978 she took her Juris Kandidatexamen at Stockholm University followed by a Master of Laws from King’s College, London (1979). Since 1985 she has been with UNIDROIT, first as Research Officer, lastly as Principal Legal Officer, her main duties being Secretary to the Working Group for the Preparation of Principles of International Commercial Contracts, Secretary to the Study Group on Franchising, Secretary to the Committee of Governmental Experts on Franchising.She also collaborated on the project for the preparation of the ELI-Unidroit Model European Rules of Civil Procedure. She is currently Managing Editor of the Uniform Law Review and responsible for publications at UNIDROIT.
Marina Schneider is Principal Legal Officer and Treaty Depositary at UNIDROIT. She studied law at the University of Strasbourg (France) and Paris I – Panthéon Sorbonne. She joined the UNIDROIT in 1987 and was involved in the elaboration and French versions of most UNIDROIT instruments since. She is in charge of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects and of the UNESCO-UNIDROIT Model Provisions on State Ownership of Undiscovered Cultural Objects. She is the author of the Explanatory Report of the 1995 Convention and many articles on the Convention and other international instruments in the field. Ms Schneider is also responsible for the project on private collections and for the UNIDROIT Convention Academic Project (UCAP). She is member of the Board of the International Society for Research on Art and Cultural Heritage Law (ISCHAL).
Professor of Commercial Law, Carlos III University of Madrid. Currently, Sir Roy Goode Scholar at UNIDROIT, Rome, 2021-2022. Chair of Excellence 2017-2018 at University of Oxford (Uc3m- Santander Program), affiliated to Harris Manchester College. Previously Distinguished Visiting Professor and fellow of a number of Academic Institutions. Arbitrator of Madrid Court of Arbitration. Member of ELI (European Law Institute) Council and Executive Committee. Member of the Expert Group of the European Commission on Liability and New Technologies and member of the Expert Group of the European Observatory of Platform Economy; the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law; the expert group of the Inclusive Global Legal Innovation Platform for Online Dispute Resolution – UNCITRAL and Hong Kong Department of Justice. Expert of the UNIDROIT Study Group on the MAC Protocol of the Cape Town Convention on International Interests. Delegate of Spain to UNIDROIT for the adoption of the Protocol, delegate of Spain in Working Group VI of UNCITRAL on secured transactions and in Working Group IV on Electronic Commerce. Member of UNIDROIT Working Groups on Enforcement and Warehouse Receipts.
William Brydie-Watson is an Australian lawyer who specialises in secured transactions law and private international law. Before joining UNIDROIT, William was a government lawyer in the Private International Law and International Arbitration section of the Australian Attorney-General’s Department, where he worked primarily on treaty negotiation and the implementation of private international law treaties in Australia. At UNIDROIT, he is primarily responsible for the implementation of the Mining, Agriculture and Construction (MAC Protocol) to the 2001 Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and the development of a Model Law on Factoring. William also serves as UNIDROIT’s liaison with the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and as manager of the Institute’s Scholarship and Internship Programme. Admitted to practice in New South Wales and the High Court of Australia, he has a Bachelor of Arts (honours), a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Laws from the Australian National University. William also lectures on International Secured Transactions Law at the Eotvos Lorand Faculty of Law in Budapest.