The effective formulation and implementation of international, regional and national law and policy in the field of international law and cultural heritage is central to our mandate.
We provide expert advice for key intergovernmental organisations and national bodies, and advocacy before international and national courts and tribunals.
The UN Human Rights Council resolution 54/22 of 12 October 2023 mandated the creation of knowledge hub of experts for the cultural rights workstream in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The UNESCO Chair was invited to provide an oral and written submissions on cultural rights and the protection of cultural heritage to the international thematic workshop organized by OHCHR and Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights on 1 December 2023. The Chair was invited to meet a OHCHR representative on 16 May 2024 on deepening relations with UNESCO on cultural human rights and the role of culture in the enjoyment of human rights.
The UNESCO Chair organizes and hosts the annual webinar, Culture and Human Rights. A Year in Review.
The UNESCO Chair co-coordinates the UNESCO-UNITWIN Network on Culture in Emergencies with Adam Michiewicz University. The network is a knowledge and practice focal point for the UNESCO Culture in Emergencies Entity.
The UNESCO-UNITWIN Network promotes role of culture in emergencies to foster peace, human rights, and sustainable development; an inclusive, people-centred approach to preparedness, protection, recovery, and peacebuilding; and engagement and synergies between international, regional, national and local institutions and communities of knowledge for protection of culture in emergency responses, humanitarian and peacebuilding efforts.
The UNESCO-UNITWIN Network was established in 2024 and is a collaboration between UTS, Adam Michiewicz University, African Institute for International Law, Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage, Jumbunna Centre for Indigenous Research and Learning (UTS), Mexican Center for Uniform Law, and UNESCO Regional Centre for Pacific States.
Action 11 of 2024 UN Pact for the Future reaffirms the need to protect and promote culture as an integral component of sustainable development. The 2022 MONDIACULT Final Declaration adopted by the Ministers of Culture of the UNESCO Member States recognizes culture as a global public good and a development goal.
Professor Ana Filipa Vrdoljak is the designated UNESCO Chairholder to support the preparation of Chapter 6 on protecting artists and culture at risk for the 2025 Global Report on Cultural Policies.
The UNESCO Chair is the Law coordinating member for Heritopolis UN-Habitat UNI MetroHubConsortium on Heritage and the Metropolis.
In 2021 the Meeting of States Parties to the 1970 UNESCO Convention recommended that UNESCO establish a Committee of Experts in the field of cultural property law to prepare Model Provisions on the Prevention and Fight against the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property.
The UNESCO Chair was invited to join the Drafting Committee for the Model Provisions being prepared in 2022 and 2023 for consultation in 2024, and revised for adoption in 2025.
The UNESCO Chair was invited to be part of UNIDROIT’s consultative expert group on regulation of private art collections as part of the Organization’s Work Programme 2023-2025.
UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.
The UNESCO Chair and UTS supports the Uluru Statement from the Heart and its implementation in full.
© 2024 UNESCO Chair on International Law and Cultural Heritage.
