Closure of the 8th session of the Subsidiary Committee

The 8th session of the Subsidiary Committee of the Meeting of States Parties to the 1970 Convention was held on 27 and 28 October 2020.

The Secretariat presented several reports and information documents on its activities, aimed at improving and strengthening the implementation of the 1970 Convention, its impact and its visibility.

Over two days discussions focused on: the proposal to develop a fundraising strategy for the 1970 Convention; the importance of inventories and how to improve them; the evaluation of potential tools for strengthening the fight against illicit trafficking in cultural property; the links between the concepts of due diligence and provenance; and the disparities between the versions of the Convention in its official languages.

The 18 Member States of the Subsidiary Committee also voted for the 50th anniversary of the 1970 Convention and its celebrations to continue until November 2021.

This session of the Subsidiary Committee was chaired by His Excellency Mr Eduardo Khalifé Moraga (Republic of Ecuador). Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Iran and the Netherlands served as Vice-Chairs and Mr Roman Oleynikov (Russian Federation) as rapporteur.

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, the session was held in the meeting room with the 18 members of the Subsidiary Committee and the Secretariat of the 1970 Convention, and online with the Member States of UNESCO, and its institutional partners including INTERPOL, ICOM, and UNIDROIT as experts.

The composition of the 8th session of the Subsidiary Committee, all the working and information documents, and the various presentations by the Secretariat of the 1970 Convention, can be found here on this webpage.