Speech by prof. Kamil Zeidler during the 14th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

 

During the 14th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, which was held on March 7-12, 2021 in Kyoto, as part of the session on the regulation of the international movement of cultural property and the search for unified solutions in criminal and civil law, prof. Kamil Zeidler from the Department of Theory and Philosophy of the State and Law of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Gdańsk was invited to deliver a lecture entitled „System of Law: Cultural Heritage Protection between Public and Private Law”. 

The session was chaired by prof. Toshiyuki Kono, Vice-President of the Kyushu University in Fukuoka, and lectures had also prof. Stefano Manacorda (University of Campania in Naples), prof. Ren Yatsunami (Kyushu University) and prof. Kanako Takayama (Kyoto University). 

What is more, at the same day during the UN Congress as a special event – promotion of the book titled “Crime Prevention and Justice in 2030: The UN and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” edited by prof. Helmut Kury and prof. Sławomir Redo, took place. In this book one can find an article titled “United Nations Perspective on Preventing Transnational Organised Crime Against Cultural Property in the Era of Sustainable Development and Restitution Arguments” by prof. Kamil Zeidler and Julia Stepnowska, PhD student at our Faculty. 

 

The year of the Kyoto Congress 2020 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970 UNESCO Convention), which was adopted at the UNESCO General Conference on 14 November 1970. Since the adoption of the 1970 UNESCO Convention, regulatory situations and legal discussions concerning the fight against illicit trafficking of cultural property have been drastically developed. As development of regulatory forms, recent meetings of its State Parties continually highlight the importance of synergy among the 1970 UNESCO Convention and the other international standards such as 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects. Also, UNESCO and its partner organizations such as UNIDROIT, INTERPOL, ICOM and others are aware of the link between illicit trafficking and organized crime. Considering the existing misuses of art trade for money laundering or terrorism, effectiveness and adequacy of the current regulation on the international movement of cultural property have to be examined from both criminal law and civil law viewpoint. From these perspectives, session took occasion to discuss contemporary and future challenges of illicit trafficking of cultural property under the overall theme of the 14th UN 

Crime Congress (Kyoto Congress 2020): “Advancing crime prevention, criminal justice and the rule of law.”