by Lynda Albertson, ARCA CEO
Earlier in March 2015, Representative Eliot L Engel, [D-NY-16] introduced a Bill in the 114th Congress, First Session, -- via the House - Armed Services; Foreign Affairs; Judiciary; Ways and Means Committee and also referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs -- calling for the protection and preservation of international cultural property at risk due to
political instability, armed conflict, or natural or other disasters,
and for other purposes [A copy of that bill has been included in its entirety below].
In addition, four members of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee wrote a letter to Adam Szubin, Director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), urging the U.S. to block import of looted Syrian antiquities:
We write to urge that the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control act quickly to promulgate regulations imposing sanctions on importers of cultural property unlawfully removed from Syria,” the letter, issued on Monday, said. “Such regulations would implement a recently adopted United Nations Security Council Resolution and would mirror regulations already established for Iraq.
The Titles for the bill introduced earlier are as follows:
- SHORT TITLE(S) AS INTRODUCED:Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act
- OFFICIAL TITLE AS INTRODUCED:To protect and preserve international cultural property at risk due to political instability, armed conflict, or natural or other disasters, and for other purposes.
On March 19, 2015 this Bill was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the
Committees on Ways and Means, Armed Services, and the Judiciary, for a
period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned.
Bill text available as: PDF
114th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1493
To protect and preserve international cultural property at risk
due to political instability, armed conflict, or natural or other
disasters, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 19, 2015
Mr. Engel (for himself, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. Royce, and Mr. Keating)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means,
Armed Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To protect and preserve international cultural property at risk
due to political instability, armed conflict, or natural or other
disasters, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
This Act may be cited as the “Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act”.
In this Act:
(1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES.—The
term “appropriate congressional committees” means the Committee on
Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on
Foreign Relations of the Senate.
(A) the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property
in the Event of Armed Conflict, concluded at The Hague on May 14, 1954
(Treaty Doc. 106–1(A));
(B) Article 1 of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the
World’s Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO on November
23, 1972 (commonly referred to as the “1972 Convention”); or
(C) Article 1 of the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and
Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of
Cultural Property, adopted by UNESCO on November 14, 1970 (commonly
referred to as the “1970 UNESCO Convention”).
(1) Over the years, international cultural property has been
looted, trafficked, lost, damaged, or destroyed due to political
instability, armed conflict, natural disasters, and other threats.
(2) During China’s Cultural Revolution, many antiques were
destroyed, including a large portion of old Beijing, and Chinese
authorities are now attempting to rebuild portions of China’s lost
architectural heritage.
(3) In 1975, the Khmer Rouge, after seizing power in Cambodia,
systematically destroyed mosques and nearly every Catholic church in the
country, along with many Buddhist temples, statues, and Buddhist
literature.
(4) In 2001, the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas, ancient
statues carved into a cliffside in central Afghanistan, leading to
worldwide condemnation.
(5) After the fall of Saddam Hussein, thieves looted the Iraq
Museum in Baghdad, resulting in the loss of approximately 15,000 items,
including ancient amulets, sculptures, ivories, and cylinder seals. Many
of these items remain unrecovered.
(6) The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami not only
affected 11 countries, causing massive loss of life, but also damaged or
destroyed libraries, archives, and World Heritage Sites such as the
Mahabalipuram in India, the Sun Temple of Koranak on the Bay of Bengal,
and the Old Town of Galle and its fortifications in Sri Lanka.
(7) In Haiti, the 2010 earthquake destroyed art, artifacts, and
archives, and partially destroyed the 17th century Haitian city of
Jacmel.
(8) In Mali, the Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group Ansar Dine
destroyed tombs and shrines in the ancient city of Timbuktu—a major
center for trade, scholarship, and Islam in the 15th and 16th
centuries—and threatened collections of ancient manuscripts.
(9) In Egypt, recent political instability has led to the
ransacking of museums, resulting in the destruction of countless ancient
artifacts that will forever leave gaps in humanity’s record of the
ancient Egyptian civilization.
(10) In Syria, the ongoing civil war has resulted in the
shelling of medieval cities, damage to five World Heritage Sites, and
the looting of museums containing artifacts that date back more than six
millennia and include some of the earliest examples of writing.
(11) In Iraq and Syria, the militant group ISIL has destroyed
numerous cultural sites and artifacts, such as the Tomb of Jonah in July
2014, in an effort to eradicate ethnic and religious minorities from
contested territories. Concurrently, cultural antiquities that escape
demolition are looted and trafficked to help fund ISIL’s militant
operations.
(12) On February 12, 2015, the United Nations Security Council
unanimously adopted resolution 2199 (2015), which “[r]eaffirms its
decision in paragraph 7 of resolution 1483 (2003) and decides that all
Member States shall take appropriate steps to prevent the trade in Iraqi
and Syrian cultural property and other items of archaeological,
historical, cultural, rare scientific, and religious importance
illegally removed from Iraq since 6 August 1990 and from Syria since 15
March 2011, including by prohibiting cross-border trade in such items,
thereby allowing for their eventual safe return to the Iraqi and Syrian
people.”.
(13) United Nations Security Council resolution 2199 (2015) also
warns that ISIL and other extremist groups are trafficking cultural
heritage items from Iraq and Syria to fund their recruitment efforts and
carry out terrorist attacks.
(14) Cultural property represents an irreparable loss of
humanity’s common cultural heritage and is therefore a loss for all
Americans.
(15) Protecting international cultural property is a vital part
of United States cultural diplomacy, showing the respect of the United
States for other cultures and the common heritage of humanity.
(16) The United States Armed Forces have played important roles
in preserving and protecting cultural property. In 1943, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt established a commission to advise the United
States military on the protection of cultural property. The commission
formed teams of individuals known as the “Monuments Men” who are
credited with securing, cataloguing, and returning hundreds of thousands
of works of art stolen by the Nazis during World War II.
(17) The Department of State, in response to the Convention on
Cultural Property Implementation Act, noted that “the legislation is
important to our foreign relations, including our international cultural
relations. The expanding worldwide trade in objects of archaeological
and ethnological interest has led to wholesale depredations in some
countries, resulting in the mutilation of ceremonial centers and
archaeological complexes of ancient civilizations and the removal of
stone sculptures and reliefs.”. The Department further noted that “[t]he
United States considers that on grounds of principle, good foreign
relations, and concern for the preservation of the cultural heritage of
mankind, it should render assistance in these situations.”.
(18) The U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield was founded in 2006
to support the implementation of the 1954 Hague Convention for the
Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and to
coordinate with the United States military, other branches of the United
States Government, and other cultural heritage nongovernmental
organizations in preserving international cultural property threatened
by political instability, armed conflict, or natural or other disasters.
(1) protect and preserve international cultural property at risk
of looting, trafficking, and destruction due to political instability,
armed conflict, or natural or other disasters;
(2) protect international cultural property pursuant to its
obligations under international treaties to which the United States is a
party;
(3) prevent, in accordance with existing laws, importation of
cultural property pillaged, looted, stolen, or trafficked at all times,
including during political instability, armed conflict, or natural or
other disasters; and
(4) ensure that existing laws and regulations, including import
restrictions imposed through the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC)
of the Department of the Treasury, are fully implemented to prevent
trafficking in stolen or looted cultural property.
The Secretary of State shall designate a Department of State
employee at the Assistant Secretary level or above to serve concurrently
as the United States Coordinator for International Cultural Property
Protection. The Coordinator shall—
(1) coordinate and promote efforts to protect international
cultural property, especially activities that involve multiple Federal
agencies;
(2) act as Chair of the Coordinating Committee on International
Cultural Property Protection established under section 5;
(3) resolve interagency differences;
(4) develop strategies to reduce illegal trade and trafficking
in international cultural property in the United States and abroad,
including by reducing consumer demand for such trade;
(5) support activities to assist countries that are the
principle sources of trafficked cultural property to protect cultural
heritage sites and to prevent cultural property looting and theft;
(6) work with and consult domestic and international actors such
as foreign governments, intergovernmental organizations,
nongovernmental organizations, museums, educational institutions, and
research institutions to protect international cultural property; and
(7) submit to the appropriate congressional committees the annual report required under section 6.
(a) Establishment.—There
is established a Coordinating Committee on International Cultural
Property Protection (in this section referred to as the “Committee”).
(b) Functions.—The
full Committee shall meet not less often than annually to coordinate
and inform Federal efforts to protect international cultural property
and to facilitate the work of the United States Coordinator for
International Cultural Property Protection designated under section 4.
(1) The Department of State.
(2) The Department of Defense.
(3) The Department of Homeland Security, including U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border
Protection.
(4) The Department of the Interior.
(5) The Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(6) The United States Agency for International Development.
(7) The Smithsonian Institution.
(8) The U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield.
(9) Such other entities as the Chair determines appropriate.
(d) Subcommittees.—The
Committee may include such subcommittees and taskforces as the Chair
determines appropriate. Such subcommittees or taskforces may be
comprised of a subset of the Committee members or of such other members
as the Chair determines appropriate. At the discretion of the Chair, the
provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) and
section 552b of title 5 of the United States Code (relating to open
meetings) shall not apply to activities of such subcommittees or
taskforces.
(e) Consultation.—The
Committee shall consult with governmental and nongovernmental
organizations, including museums, educational institutions, and research
institutions on efforts to promote and protect international cultural
property.
The Secretary of State, acting through the United States
Coordinator for International Cultural Property Protection, and in
consultation with the Administrator of the United States Agency for
International Development, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney
General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, as appropriate, shall
annually submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report
that includes information on activities of—
(1) the United States Coordinator and the Coordinating Committee
on International Cultural Property Protection to protect international
cultural property;
(A) procedures the Department has instituted to protect
international cultural property at risk of destruction due to political
instability, armed conflict, or natural or other disasters; and
(B) actions the Department has taken to protect international
cultural property in conflicts to which the United States is a party;
(3) the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) to protect international cultural property, including activities
and coordination with other Federal agencies, international
organizations, and nongovernmental organizations regarding the
protection of international cultural property at risk due to political
unrest, armed conflict, natural or other disasters, and USAID
development programs;
(A) directives, policies, and regulations the Department has
instituted to protect international cultural property at risk of
destruction due to political instability, armed conflict, or natural or
other disasters; and
(B) actions the Department has taken to avoid damage to cultural property through construction activities abroad; and
(5) the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of
Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to protect both
international cultural property abroad and international cultural
property located in, or attempted to be imported into, the United
States, including activities undertaken pursuant to statutes and
international agreements, including—
(A) statutes and regulations the Department has employed in
criminal, civil, and civil forfeiture actions to prevent and interdict
trafficking in stolen and smuggled cultural property, including
investigations into transnational organized crime and smuggling
networks; and
(B) actions the Department has taken in order to ensure the
consistent and effective application of law in cases relating to both
international cultural property abroad and international cultural
property located in, or attempted to be imported into, the United
States.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any agency that is
involved in international cultural property protection activities is
authorized to enter into agreements or memoranda of understanding with
the Smithsonian Institution to temporarily engage personnel from the
Smithsonian Institution for the purposes of furthering such
international cultural property protection activities.
(a) Presidential determination.—Notwithstanding subsection (b) of section 304 of the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 2603)
(relating to a Presidential determination that an emergency condition
applies with respect to any archaeological or ethnological material of
any State Party to the Convention), the President shall apply the import
restrictions referred to in such section 304 with respect to any
archaeological or ethnological material of Syria, except that subsection
(c) of such section 304 shall not apply. Such import restrictions shall
take effect not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of
this Act.
(1) the term “archaeological or ethnological material of Syria”
means cultural property of Syria and other items of archaeological,
historical, cultural, rare scientific, or religious importance
unlawfully removed from Syria on or after March 15, 2011; and
(2) the term “State Party” has the meaning given such term in
section 302 of the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 2601).
