The archaeological community needs your help in defeating a bill
introduced in the U.S. Senate (S.1696) that if
passed would have a detrimental impact on the ability of countries to
protect their cultural heritage. In the next few
weeks the Senate Finance Committee will consider whether to move forward
with S.1696, and now is the time for
senators to hear from the archaeological and preservation communities.
Below is a brief summary of S.1696 as well as talking points for your
letters. Letters should be sent to Chairman
William Roth, Senate Finance Committee, SD-219, Washington, D.C. 20510,
or comments via email can be sent to:
[log in to unmask] Copies of letters should also be sent to your
U.S. Senators as well. Addresses,
including email addresses for all U.S. Senators can be found at:
http://www.senate.gov/senators/index.cfm
If your Senator is a member of the Finance Committee, a separate letter
should be sent to her/him. To ascertain
whether you Senator is on the Committee, visit:
http://www.senate.gov/~finance/fin-comm.htm
Thank you very much for your attention and if it is no trouble could you
please send me a copy of any
correspondence you send to the Senate.
Donald Forsyth Craib
Manager, Government Affairs, and Counsel
Society for American Archaeology
900 Second Street, N.E.
Suite 12
Washington, D.C. 20002
202.789.8200
202.789.0284-fax
[log in to unmask]
S. 1696: The Cultural Property Procedural Reform Act
On October 6, 1999, Senator Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) introduced S. 1696.
The legislation seeks to amend the
Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (19 USC 2600), which
was passed by Congress in 1982.
Through the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (CCPIA),
the United States became a party to the
1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the
Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of
Ownership of Cultural Property (UNESCO Convention) that seeks to end the
pillaging and destruction of important
archaeological and cultural sites, and to protect the integrity of each
country’s cultural patrimony, including our
own.
If enacted in to law, S. 1696 would inhibit the United States’ ability
to enter into agreements with foreign nations to
restrict the flow of undocumented antiquities, create a bureaucratic
nightmare, and leave the CCPIA unable to carry
out the purposes for which it was intended. Specifically, the
amendments would:
- alter the language of the CCPIA so that it no longer conforms to the
terms of the international UNESCO Convention, thereby eroding the U.S.’s ability
to work cooperatively with other nations and to adequately protect its
own rich and diverse cultural heritage via the reciprocal protection
that the treaty provides;
- force the disclosure of confidential and highly sensitive information
that would lead to the increased pillage of cultural sites and aid the illicit
trade in antiquities;
- effectively convert the existing Cultural Property Advisory
Committee, created to provide expert advice to the President, into a partisan
haven for special interests;
- require vastly increased staffing and funding within the U.S. Department of
State during times of budget cuts and institute complex procedures for the
committee that would curtail its ability to perform its statutory duties.
- impose significant administrative burdens on the Cultural Property
Advisory Committee, which recommends to the President whether import
restrictions on undocumented antiquities should be adopted. The
ultimate result would be to reverse the leading role that the United
States has played since 1983 in fighting the illicit trafficking in cultural
property.
Valuable information about our world’s past is being lost daily due to
looting of archaeological sites in the United States, as well as abroad.
Passage of S. 1696 would increase the demand for looted items, increase pillage
of archaeological sites, and rob humanity of its past. The 1970 UNESCO
Convention that seeks to protect the world’s cultural heritage was designed to
protect nations’ cultural patrimony, not to benefit art dealers and auction
houses.
The archaeological community urges you to oppose S. 1696 and demand that
the Senate Finance Committee schedule a hearing on the legislation.
>
>
> the european association of archaeologists (EAA) has passed a resolution to
> support like-minded groups (SHA, AIA, etc.) in any actions against S.1696 -
> while the EAA will be going through official channels, sending official
> letters,
> etc., we would also like to know what anyone is doing out there
> "unofficially",
> spontaneously, out of own inititive, etc. - that we could maybe lend whatever
> support we can there too -
>
> geoff carver
> http://home.t-online.de/home/gcarver/
> [log in to unmask]
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> From: geoff carver <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: cultural heritage bill S.1696
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geoff carver
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