UNESCO Cultural Heritage Laws Database

UNESCO’s new database of cultural heritage laws facilitates identification and retrieval of information about the national laws of its Member States that deal with cultural heritage -- whether movable, immovable, intangible, underwater or natural. The resource aims to protect cultural heritage as a whole by combating looting, theft, illegal export and import and illicit trafficking of cultural property as well as the degradation and all other forms of deterioration of the heritage. To further strengthen protection of cultural heritage, UNESCO is also stepping up its campaign for the ratification and implementation of conventions relating to protection of the cultural heritage, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention, the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (which entered into force on 20 April 2006) and the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (which entered into force on 18 March 2007).

In HOORC’s Library, you can find Heritage resources law : protecting the archaeological and cultural environment by Sherry Hutt, Caroline M. Blanco and Ole Varmer, and Safeguarding of intangible heritage by HOORC researcher Dr. S.O. Keitumetse.