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Turkmenistan ratifies UNESCO 1970 Convention on the fight against illicit trafficking of cultural property
On 1 June 2022, Turkmenistan deposited with the UNESCO Director-General, Ms Audrey Azoulay, its instrument of ratification of the .
The Convention will enter into force with respect to Turkmenistan three months after the deposit of the instrument of ratification, that is to say on 1 September 2022.
Turkmenistan will become the 142nd State Party to the Convention, and the fifth Central Asian country to ratify it, which means that now all Central Asian countries have joined.
The ratification of the UNESCO 1970 Convention by Turkmenistan marks a new momentum for the protection of cultural property, as all Central Asian countries are now States Parties to the Convention. This should also encourage ratifications in other regions.
UNESCO advocates for the universal ratification and the implementation of the UNESCO 1970 Convention and the UNIDROIT 1995 Convention to effectively fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural property.
UNESCO supports States Parties in the Central Asian region in developing tools to implement the Convention. Recently, representatives of the UNESCO Office in Tehran (Iran) participated in the “Regional training on countering illicit trafficking of cultural property”[LF1] organized from 26 to 28 July 2022 by the (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) in Ashgabat (Turkmenistan).
With this ratification of the UNESCO 1970 Convention, Turkmenistan has now ratified five UNESCO Conventions in the field of culture: the concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, ratified in 1994, the for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, ratified in 2011, the for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, ratified in 2018, and the on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, ratified in 2021.
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