UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage

After more than four years of negotiation among expert groups including government

representatives, archaeological and historical experts, and commercial salvage interests, on

November 2,2001, the General Conference ofUNESCO adopted the Convention on the

Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.s The fourth convention adopted by UNESCO to protect cultural property

Will read together in this article :

UNESCO, Relics protection, Treasures, Wealths, Trade

With technological advances in the world Became Detect Antiquities of the sunken Easier than ever And in need of protection For that UNESCO has To the work of treaty To protect these monuments.

it states that underwater heritage is under grave

threat due to major advances in underwater salvage and excavation technology and the very

substantial financial rewards that can be obtained in both the legal and illicit world markets

for antiquities and other relics from sunken vessels and sites. In response, the Convention

mandates specific measures to protect "all traces of human existence having a cultural,

historical or archaeological character which have been partially or totally under water, periodically

or continuously, for at least 100 years."s The treaty is now open for ratification

or accession by all UNESCO member States and will come into effect when twenty States

have adopted it in accordance with national treaty law procedures. Although the United

States is not a member of UNESCO, it is eligible to ratify the treaty.

The Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III), which

was negotiated from 1974 to 1982 and came into force in 1994, already imposes a duty on

States to protect objects found at sea that are of an archaeological and historical nature."

However, UNCLOS III grants States the right to protect the underwater cultural heritage

only in their contiguous zone, which extends 24 miles from the shoreline, and not in their

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which can extend 200 miles from a State's coast, or the

continental shelf, which also extends 200 miles from the shore.7 In addition, UNCLOS III

does not set out precise procedures for protecting underwater sites.

The new UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage

extends the right of States to "prohibit or authorise any activity directed at [the cultural

heritage]" to their EEZ or to the continental shelf.s States are also asked to "preserve

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