This document contains model legislative provisions (the “Model Provisions”) established by a group of experts convened by the UNESCO and Unidroit Secretariats which are intended to assist domestic legislative bodies in the establishment of a legislative 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.

The Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Hellenic Republic (hereinafter also referred to as Greece);

The Swiss Federal Council and the Government of the Hellenic Republic (hereinafter ‘the Parties’) in application of the November 14, 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, to which both countries are a party, and in pursuit of relevant applicable provisions at the Parties, in consideration that theft, looting and the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property representing harm to the cultural heritage of mankind, endeavoring to make a contribution to maintain and secure cultural heritage and to prohibit and prevent the illegal transfer of cultural property, in the belief that cooperation between both countries may constitute an important contribution in this regard, endeavoring to ease the repatriation of illicitly imported, exported and having its ownership illegally transferred cultural property and to strengthen contacts between both countries with regard to cultural exchanges, have agreed as follows.

The archaeological heritage is an essential element which defines the oldness and originality of culture, history and traditions of every nation, state or cultural space in relation to other nations, states or ethno-cultural spaces. Every nation has the obligation to preserve its cultural goods and to valorize it for the benefit of the entire humanity.

Abstract: This article provides one of the first presentations of the Law of the Republic of Moldova on Archaeological Heritage Preservation recently approved by the Moldovan Parliament. Since 1993, Moldova has had a general law on monument preservation, but the part on archaeological heritage was poorly developed. The new law is the first of its kind in Moldova and was established according to the principles of the European and International Conventions signed in recent years by the Republic of Moldova. This law opens new avenues for Moldovan society to improve the situation in of its archaeological heritage, specifically to fight the black market in archaeology and illegal trafficking of antiquities.

An international conference on “Asian Urban Heritage,” organized by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Thailand Association, took place in the city of Phuket 15–17 October, 2011. The conference was organized and hosted in collaboration with Phuket Province, Phuket Municipality, the Thai Perankan Association, Phuket Old Town Community, Old Phuket Town Foundation, Department of Architecture–Chulangkorn University and the Department of Architecture–Thammasat University. The conference invited papers on five subthemes: Heritage Management, Legal Protection and Incentives, Historic Urban Landscapes, Climate Change and Disaster Prevention, and Industrial Heritage.

The 17th General Assembly of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) took place at the UNESCO Headquarters, Paris (France), from 27 November to 2 December 2011, under the high patronage of Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO, and Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic. The events included meetings of the Advisory and Executive Committees, the Scientific Council, International Scientific Committees (ISCs); the Scientific Symposium; and the General Assembly. According to the ICOMOS official report, this conference had a record attendance of 1200 registered participants, representing 106 countries and 77 National Committees. The generous grants offered to National Committees through the ICOMOS Victoria Falls Fund and the Getty Foundation made it possible for 63 professionals from 47 countries to attend the event.

In response to the emerging phenomenon of the role of nonstate actors in heritage protection and preservation, a one-day symposium took place on 16 March 2012 in the new Allard Hall building of the Faculty of Law at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. The conference was officially opened by Dean of Law, Professor Mary Anne Bobinski and received financial support from the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Law Conference Fund; the Pacific Northwest Canadian Studies Consortium; and Golder Associates Ltd. The conference brought together seven experts from both academia and practice to discuss contemporary practices and emerging legal and sociological trends in heritage protection by private actors.

The meeting of experts in Warsaw is one of the activities marking the 20th anniversary of the Memory of the World (MoW) program. The events started on 1 April and were held throughout 2012, including a MoW Exhibition at the UNESCO headquarters that focused on items that are listed on MoW Register (national, regional, and international) and an international conference held 26–28 September 2012 in Vancouver, Canada, on Memory of the World in the Digital Age: Digitization and Preservation. The challenges and solutions relating to the impact of the technological advances for the preservation and accessibility of the documentary heritage have occupied the attention of UNESCO for some time, culminating in the adoption of the Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage by the 32nd session of the General Conference of UNESCO on 17 October 2003.

The international law of culture is a broad field, which certainly goes beyond the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as the international organization entrusted with, among other things, cultural affairs. Indeed, if one considers the far-reaching definition of culture, then a vast number of institutions, rules of hard and soft law, and initiatives of different scope and shape exist, and new ones come into being. This institutional complexity and the ensuing rule fragmentation are indicative of multiple scenes of contestation, denoted by different actors, politics, dynamics, and often strong path dependencies, which make meaningful communication between them and a solution-oriented forward thinking difficult. In scholarship, too, there appears to be increasing specialization, which carves out topics and subtopics, such as the UNESCO versus the World Trade Organization (WTO) clash, cultural heritage preservation, or indigenous peoples' rights. This may, despite the deeper knowledge won, hinder pinpointing appropriate regulatory responses at the international level, which could address cultural rights comprehensively.

Fourteen years after the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention came into force, the first special meeting as envisaged under Article 20 of the Convention was held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on 19 June 2012. Article 20 provides that “The President of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) may at regular intervals, or at any time at the request of five Contracting states, convene a special committee in order to review the practical operation of this Convention.” Appropriately, the first special committee meeting took place at UNESCO's head office, preceding by a day the second meeting of States Parties to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership Cultural Property, which convened in Paris on 20–21 June 2012. The UNIDROIT Convention was initiated at the request of UNESCO to fill the gap in the 1970 Convention relating to the private law aspects of the return and restitution of stolen or illegally exported cultural property.

The UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property was adopted in Paris on 14 November 1970. It came into force on 24 April 1972. It took over 30 years for the first Meeting of States Parties to the Convention to take place on 15 October 2003. The second meeting, the subject of this report, took place after a shorter period of about nine years, on 20–21 June 2012. A Meeting of States Parties to a treaty is primarily a forum to discuss and agree on measures that can be taken to improve its effectiveness and the realization of the aims and objectives of the instrument. Accordingly, the meeting was tasked with examining in depth the impact of the measures taken by States Parties to the Convention in order to optimize its implementation, and also to consider and approve whatever efficacious measures should be taken for its best functioning.

In Russia a new statute entered into force according to which all confiscated objects of the Orthodox Church should be given back to the former owner. Die Zeit, 3 February 2011, p. 58.