Considering
the gravity of the pillaging and looting of cultural property
in the Central African region, conscious of the fact that
the problem can only be resolved through a concerted collaborative
effort at regional and international level, we, the participants
in the workshop on the illicit traffic of cultural property
held in Kinshasa, Zaire, 26-28 June 1996.
TO
DECISION MAKERS
We
ask you:
-
to give a prominent place to the development of museums in
your policy and to provide museum professionals a status and
satisfactory working conditions so that they can exercise
their function of information, training and education in the
field of heritage;
-
to urgent launching of rescue archaeology programmes;
-
to give to the professionals the resources for the preparation
of inventories and the classification of sites;
-
the urgent drafting and revision of national legislation
on the basis of regional experts reports in charge of defining
the cultural heritage.
We
ask to the governments of the States which have not yet
done so, to urgently ratify the 1970 UNESCO Convention against
illicit traffic in cultural property, the UNIDROIT Convention
1995, as far as the very concerning situation of countries
in situation of armed conflict, the Hague 1954 Convention.
The
participants in the workshop recommend the constitution
of a coordination committee of representatives of departments
concerned (culture, research, education, police, customs,
justice, foreign affairs, tourism, trade). These representatives
will have to be selected for the professional expertise.
This committee will have the mandate to define a policy
and strategies for a better application of legislation on
cultural heritage and to implement these strategies.
TO
MUSEUM PROFESSIONALS
We
recommend:
-
the holding of a meeting of cultural heritage professionals
in order to define the cultural and national heritage to be
protected taking into consideration the cultural context in
the region.
-
the participation in the AFRICOM project for standardization
of inventories and documentation.
-
the creation of a regional organization of ICOM in Central
Africa (ICOMAC) which shall ensure the follow-up of actions
proposed in this meeting.
The
participants in the workshop commit themselves to undertake
to organize within a year practical actions in the field
such as information and training of customs and police officers
and to report of these activities as the AFRICOM Coordinating
Committee.
TO
INTERPOL NCB AND CUSTOMS SERVICES
We
request you:
-
to utilize to full extent the possibilities of dissiminating
information on stolen cultural objects through Interpol
and World Customs Organisation (WCO).
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