South Asian exchange ideas on preservation of cultural heritages

A two-day international symposium entitled "Protecting Asia's heritage, strategies for fighting illicit traffic of cultural property and fostering restitution" concluded Tuesday in Nepal's capital Kathmandu. The symposium, jointly organized by the UNESCO and Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, brought together about 100 experts working in various sectors related to cultural-heritage preservations. The experts included twenty speakers from the South Asian region and from UNESCO headquarters in Paris, Interpol, the World Customs Organization, and other regional organizations. Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Ram Kumar Shrestha said that the problem of illicit trafficking of cultural properties is a greater threat for Nepal as well as to other nations and the gathering would support to find out ways to fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural heritage. According to the UNICEF, the symposium exchanged knowledge on the state of illicit trafficking of cultural property in South Asia, on the statues of the implementation of international legal frameworks and on the best practices covering both preventive measures and restitution process. It also made recommendations on the best use of international legal tools and frameworks and customary laws and provisions on strategies for the return of cultural property. Axel Plathe, head of the UNESCO office in Kathmandu, said that the symposium addressed a variety of issues like challenges to establish a system to identify and locate cultural property in a systematic way.