Rules for underwater archaeology

Abstract

The Convention for the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage was adopted by the 31st General Conference of UNESCO and signed by its President and the Director-General of UNESCO on 6 November 2001. States can now become party to it by depositing with UNESCO a document of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession. The Convention will come into force three months after the 20th state has deposited such a document. On becoming party, the states concerned undertake to carry out the obligations and assume the duties set out in the Convention. Attached to the Convention is an Annex setting out 'Rules Concerning Activities Directed at Underwater Cultural Heritage'. According to Article 34 of the Convention, the Rules form an integral part of the Convention and 'unless expressly provided otherwise, a reference to this Convention includes a reference to the Rules'. When the Convention comes into force, these Rules will then. be part of international law binding on the states party. Archaeologists will be aware of instruments such as the Charter for the Protection and Management of the Archaeological Heritage (1990) and the International Charter on the Protection and Management of Underwater Cultural Heritage (1996), both adopted by the International Council for Monuments and Sites. There is also the European Convention on· Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (Revised)· 1992. This contains provisions affecting the way archaeology is conducted but is mainly aimed at state administrations. The Annex to the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage contains rules directly controlling the way work on such heritage is to be conducted. On becoming party to the Convention, states will be obliged to ensure compliance with these Rules. Moreover, in the course of the debate on the Convention during the General Conference, certain states which abstained from voting for the Convention said that they would implement the Rules in their own internal systems. This is the first time that such detailed rules relating to archaeology are being given the force of international law. The Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage grew from a Draft Convention .prepared by the Cultural Heritage Law Committee of the International Law Association in the period 1988-94. That Committee realized early in its work that states would need objective standards by which to judge the appropriateness of actions in respect of the underwater cultural her.., itage. In 1991 the newly established ICOMOS International Committee on the Underwater Cultural Heritage was approached and asked to assist in the preparation of a set of principles which could be attached to the Draft Convention in a document called the 'Charter for the Protection and Management of the Underwater Cultural Heritage'. The relevant principles were developed at meetings in Paris, 1994, and London, 1995, and forwarded to UNESCO. During debate among governmental experts at a meeting in Paris in 1999, Canada stated that the standards set out in the Charter formed a good basis for the principles that should guide any authorized activity directed at underwater cultural heritage but they needed adjustment to fit the context of a Convention. Following on this, Canada circulated a working paper incorporating such adjustments. This became the basis for work in a special group during that and the