Journey into Heritage Security: Enlist Now for Our Specialized Course

Specialized Course on Cultural Heritage, Crime and Security: Protecting our Past to Invest in our Future, 11-15 March 2024

The protection of cultural heritage is a critical component within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda, as reported under Goal 11 through which countries have pledged to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.” In particular, Target 11.4 of Goal 11 aims to “strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage.”
Over the years, the number of international crimes related to the looting and trafficking of cultural heritage property has significantly grown. Moreover, their links to international criminal activity, including the use of assets to finance terrorist activities, are becoming more evident year by year.
The concern of the international community on this matter is also demonstrated by the adoption in the past decades of diverse conventions providing guidance to Member States on the protection and recovery of their cultural assets. As embodied in the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972, the United Nations seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.

With these considerations in mind, the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), in cooperation with The American University of Rome (AUR), is organizing the fourth edition of the Specialized Course “Cultural Heritage, Crime and Security – Protecting our Past to Invest in our Future”, which will be delivered from 11 to 15 March 2024.
The course will provide participants with a fundamental understanding of heritage crime and how heritage organisations, law enforcement bodies and judicial systems are responding to the issue.

The course curriculum is likely to include the following topics:

• Legal frameworks to protect of cultural property
• Conflict and decolonization – the legacy of empire
• Understanding criminal trafficking networks and countering looting
• Armed conflict and the role of the military in protecting cultural heritage
• Protecting museums and heritage sites

The Specialized Course offers professional, legal, social, scientific, and academic perspectives through live webinars, group discussions, dynamic case studies, individual readings, and practical exercises. The faculty is composed of leading scholars and academics from AUR and other universities, as well as international legal experts from the United Nations system, international and non-governmental organizations, and civil society.
 

 Relevant information

For more information click here