Patrimoine culturel subaquatique
FAQs
How does the State Cooperation System of the 2001 Convention work?
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Réponse :
Depending on the location of the concerned underwater cultural heritage, specific regulations for the reporting and the coordination of activities are applicable according to the 2001 Convention.
To begin with, it should be made clear once again that in their Internal and Archipelagic Waters and Territorial Sea1, States Parties have the exclusive right to regulate activities concerning underwater cultural heritage. No specific cooperation scheme is therefore provided, even if a general rule is set that States should cooperate.
Within the Exclusive Economic Zone, the Continental Shelf and the Area (the latter being the seabed outside national jurisdiction), a specific international cooperation regime encompassing reporting, consultations and coordination in the implementation of protective measures is established in Articles 9 – 11 of the 2001 Convention.
Summing up the main achievements and basic features of this reporting and coordination scheme for sites located on the seabed seawards from the Territorial Sea of a State Party:
• Each State Party will prohibit its own nationals and vessels from engaging in activities harming underwater cultural heritage;
• Each State Party will require its nationals and vessels to report discoveries and activities concerning underwater cultural heritage located in the Exclusive Economic Zone, on the Continental Shelf, and in the Area, and inform the other States Parties;
• If no State has jurisdiction over the location of the concerned archaeological site (beside jurisdiction over its own nationals and vessels)2, a “Coordinating State” takes over the control of the site, coordinating the cooperation and consultation among States Parties and implementing their decisions, while acting on behalf of the States Parties and not in its own interest;
• States Parties will take measures to prevent the dealing in underwater cultural heritage illicitly exported and/or recovered and seize it, if it is found in their territory.
The reasoning behind this cooperation scheme is the following: even if a State, party to the 2001 Convention, has no State jurisdiction over a certain archaeological site it is interested in and that is victim to looting, it can via UNESCO cooperate with the State Party under whose flag a pillaging ship sails or to which the treasure hunter belongs. This other State can take legal action to ensure proper protection of the site by exercising its own jurisdiction on its nationals or vessels.
In order to ensure the functioning of the protection agreed upon by the cooperating States, a Coordinating State is chosen or will be appointed (according to the concerned maritime zone) for each concerned underwater cultural heritage site. This can then implement measures of protection in consultation with the other States.
This cooperation scheme will in the long run, and provided that a large number of States become Party to the 2001 Convention, render protection effective and also ensure the safeguard of cultural heritage located on the seabed seawards from the limit of the Territorial Seas.
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Fn 1: That is up to a distance of a maximum of 12 nautical miles from the so-called baseline of their coast
Fn 2: A State has however the right to prohibit or authorize any activity directed at such heritage to prevent interference with its sovereign rights or jurisdiction as far as these reach; Art. 10 para. 2 of the Convention regulates: “A State Party in whose exclusive economic zone or on whose continental shelf underwater cultural heritage is located has the right to prohibit or authorize any activity directed at such heritage to prevent interference with its sovereign rights or jurisdiction as provided for by international law including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”
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