Combating Terror Funding: Cultural Heritage Trafficking in Syria and Iraq Targeted by Unanimously Adopted UN Security Council Resolution
The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2199 today. It is designed to strangle terrorists’ ability to raise money through cultural heritage trafficking and other criminal sources like oil smuggling and kidnap and ransom.
In the three paragraphs that cover cultural heritage trafficking, the Security Council declares that it
Condemns the destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq and Syria particularly by ISIL and ANF, whether such destruction is incidental or deliberate, including targeted destruction of religious sites and objects;
Notes with concern that ISIL, ANF and other individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with Al-Qaida, are generating income from engaging directly or indirectly in the looting and smuggling of cultural heritage items from archaeological sites, museums, libraries, archives, and other sites in Iraq and Syria, which is being used to support their recruitment efforts and strengthen their operational capability to organize and carry out terrorist attacks;
Reaffirms its decision in paragraph 7 of resolution 1483 (2003) [that prohibits the trade in Iraqi cultural heritage objects reasonably suspected to have been illegally removed] and decides that all Member States shall take appropriate steps to prevent the trade in Iraqi and Syrian cultural property and other items of archaeological, historical, cultural, rare scientific, and religious importance illegally removed from Iraq since 6 August 1990 and from Syria since 15 March 2011, including by prohibiting crossborder trade in such items, thereby allowing for their eventual safe return to the Iraqi and Syrian people and calls upon the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Interpol, and other international organizations, as appropriate, to assist in the implementation of this paragraph[.]
Photo credit: Marmit
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