UNESCO will take stock of progress in implementing the Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage during a meeting at UNESCO’s Headquarters on 9 May (Room II).
The Director-General of UNESCO will open the meeting alongside Alejandro Palma Cerna, Chairperson of the Meeting of States Parties to the Convention. Adopted in 2001, the Convention entered into force in 2009.
During the meeting, the findings of two emergency missions undertaken in 2015 by representatives of the Convention’s Advisory Body will come under review. The missions were conducted by underwater archaeologist Michel L’Hour (France) and Xavier Nieto Prieto (Spain). They concerned heritage off the shores of Madagascar and to the wreck of the San José off the coast of Panama, two sites threatened by treasure hunters.
Experts will also speak of the role of underwater heritage as a vector for peace and reconciliation and its contribution to our understanding of the impact of rising sea levels.
The UNESCO Convention aims to ensure the safeguarding of underwater heritage and fight looting and commercial exploitation of shipwrecks by providing for the seizure of objects salvaged illegally. Fifty-five UNESCO Member States have ratified the Convention to date.
Twelve internationally recognized experts constitute the Convention’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Body, which assists countries wishing to protect their underwater heritage. In 21015, the Advisory Body dispatched three missions to help States whose heritage faced imminent danger.
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Media contact: Agnès Bardon, UNESCO Press Service, +33 (0) 1 45 68 17 64, a.bardon(at)unesco.org
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