The ongoing conflict has put Sudan’s rich cultural heritage at extreme risk and in August 2024 UNIDROIT joined UNESCO and other partners to call upon the public and professionals involved in the trade of cultural property to fight against illicit trafficking of Sudanese cultural property because reinforcement of measures to protect Sudan’s cultural heritage had become crucial.
In March 2025, UNIDROIT was invited to participate in the online Inception Training Course on Cultural Property Protection and Illicit Trafficking in Sudan organised by the Fondazione Santagata under the auspices of the UNESCO Regional Office for Egypt and Sudan and with the support of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS).
Ms Marina Schneider, Principal Legal Officer and treaties Depositary at UNIDROIT, presented on 26 March 2025 the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects – and the Model Provisions on State Ownership of Undiscovered Cultural Objects providing a comprehensive understanding of the framework, principles and mechanisms of such instruments. She also explained the complementarity between the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention and the 1970 UNESCO Convention as Sudan is a Party to none of those instruments.
The presentation was followed by a lively discussion with the participants.