Convention for the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage

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Logo of the German UNESCO Commission for Underwater Cultural Heritage

The 2001 Convention for the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage was created in order to adapt the protection of the underwater cultural heritage to the protection of the cultural heritage on land and to regulate and facilitate the cooperation between the different states. The convention came into force in 2009 and has been ratified by 64 states as of 2020, including Switzerland in 2019, but not yet by Germany or Austria.

Under Underwater Cultural Heritage understands Convention of UNESCO while all traces of human existence that have lain under water more than 100 years of historical or cultural are important. Pipelines and other still standing in use systems remain, however, it excluded.

The UNESCO Convention does not contain any regulation on the ownership of found cultural property and does not intend to change the state sovereignty in the various sea ​​zones .

The content of the convention

The Convention focuses on three main points in order to achieve its objective of protecting underwater cultural heritage:

  • Establishing general principles of protection for underwater cultural heritage
  • The establishment of an international cooperation system
  • Establishing guidelines for the work of underwater archaeologists (in the Annex to the Convention)

The Protection Principles of the 2001 Convention

The general protection principles of the UNESCO Convention of 2001 are in harmony with the principles already recognized for cultural heritage on land. They include the principle of the protection and non- commercialization of the cultural heritage, the preference for the preservation of the cultural heritage at the site and the observance of archaeological standards in the event of a find recovery.

The convention supports respectful access to archaeological sites by the public.

As mentioned above, it is no secret that among these general principles of the Convention the problem of commercial exploitation is by far the most serious.

The international cooperation system

In addition to the definition of protection principles, the cooperation system, which is intended to enable cooperation between affected states, is an important part of the UNESCO Convention. This system was developed to find a solution to gaps in state sovereignty at sea .

The further one moves away from the coast of a state, the lower the sovereign rights of the coastal state become. On the high seas, a state therefore only has rights over its own citizens and ships that sail under its flag . If an archaeological site that is not in territorial waters is looted, the coastal state and the country of origin (or other interested states) must work together to stop looters. This cooperation is regulated by the 2001 UNESCO Convention. However, sovereign rights or maritime law zones are explicitly not changed.

The cooperation system of the convention regulates that every state prohibits the damage to the underwater cultural heritage, obliges its nationals to report finds or activities and assumes the obligation to inform the other contracting states of the convention about received reports. They can then register their interest in a cooperation if they have a verifiable historical connection to the archaeological find concerned. States that have shown their interest in this way are discussed among themselves, and the decisions taken are implemented by a coordinating state in the interests of the cultural heritage and of all the states concerned . The coordinating state acts as a representative and does not acquire any additional sovereign rights. The legitimation for sovereign acts against persons and ships on the high seas results from the sovereign law of the country of origin participating in the consultation.

The guidelines for the work of underwater archaeologists

The annex of the 2001 UNESCO Convention sets standards for the work of underwater archaeologists. Its rules have found broad support from archaeologists around the world. They set principles for archaeological work, the documentation and the financing of excavations . They are not only useful for archaeologists, but also for authorities who are faced with the question of whether or not to grant a request for an excavation.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. Paris, November 2, 2001. In: unesco.org. UNESCO, accessed on July 4, 2020 .