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CENTRAL TEXAS MODEL UN CRISIS COMMITTEES International Assembly on Rights of Cultural Antiquity CRISIS DIRECTOR | Kira Azulay Spring 2020 COPYRIGHT NOTICE The contents of this document and any supplementary material are the sole intellectual property of Central Texas Model United Nations. It may not be reproduced, republished, or used without the express written permission of Central Texas Model United Nations. Please email [email protected] with any questions. NOTE TO DELEGATES FROM THE CHIEF OF CRISIS Dear Delegates, On behalf of the entire Office of the Secretary General, I would like to welcome you to our Digital Spring Crisis Conference. My name is Nick Eastwood and I have the distinct pleasure of serving as the Chief of Crisis this year. I attended my first CTMUN conference as a freshman in high school nearly 7 years ago, and I continue to look back fondly on every conference since. This past year has certainly been unusual, but because of the immense dedication of our crisis directors and crisis staff CTMUN continues to deliver the most exceptional conference in the South. We are immensely grateful for the time each and every member of our staff puts into this conference and are indebted to them for their continued efforts in this newfound environment. I hope that during your brief time with us at CTMUN that you may immerse yourself into your role and have the same opportunity to experience breakthrough moments as I did nearly seven years ago. As the future leaders of tomorrow, I hope you take this conference as an opportunity to learn about foreign affairs not though a textbook but by experiencing diplomacy in practice. Hook’em, Nick Eastwood Chief of Crisis [email protected] NOTE TO DELEGATES FROM THE CRISIS DIRECTOR Dear Delegates, Welcome to the International Assembly on Rights of Cultural Antiquity! My name is Kira Azulay, and I am a senior Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies major with a certificate in Museum Studies at UT. I first got involved with Model UN as a delegate in 7th grade and I have loved it ever since. Since joining CTMUN I have staffed and created multiple crisis committees and last year I was the organization’s first Under-Secretary-General of Outreach and Development. I am very excited to serve as your Crisis Director in my final semester at the University of Texas. I hope this will be a fun, memorable, and educational experience for y’all. Please let me know if you have any questions. I will be happy to provide clarification or more information on the committee, background guide, or being a UT student! I hope to see you all on conference day! Hook’em horns! Kira Azulay Crisis Director [email protected] BACKGROUND INFORMAITON BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO COLONIALISM Colonialism is the practice of one people establishing political power over another, often for economic dominance. This is most often associated with the 1500s of Europe, when multiple European countries began establishing colonies around the world, from North and South America, to Africa, to Asia. These colonies established trading posts to strengthen the home country’s economy, with the added purpose of spreading religion from the home country to the colony. Establishment of colonies was accomplished through multiple means but more often than not, through horrific violence. Conquerors and colonists were invaders, and while many of the residents of “newly discovered” lands were open to trade, they all had their own societies and governments and did not want to join an empire. Colonists often used force and deception to decimate native populations in order to subjugate them. This resulted in the colonized region being used for resources or labor to the detriment and devastation of the colony. While powers all over the world have established colonies and colonization activity dates back as far as Ancient Egypt, modern colonialism is most associated with Europe. Historian Philip Hoffman calculated that by 1800, before the Industrial Revolution, Europeans already controlled at least 35% of the globe, and by 1914, they had gained control of 84% of the globe. The effects are still felt today. “The world's colonial population at the outbreak of the First World War (1914) - a high point for colonialism - totaled about 560 million people, of whom 70% lived in British possessions, 10% in French possessions, 9% in Dutch possessions, 4% in Japanese possessions, 2% in German possessions, 2% in American possessions, 2% in Portuguese possessions, 1% in Belgian possessions and half of 1% in Italian possessions.”1The United Kingdom still holds authority over the remaining “commonwealth” countries in its Empire, though 65 countries have left the British Empire with the most recent being Brunei in 1984. Though much of colonial power was for economic purposes, colonial countries also reaped many social, cultural, and scientific benefits from their colonies. Origins of Museums Given the colonial power’s total authority over Humans have been collecting artifacts and native populations in their colonies, curiosities interesting art to create records of themselves were taken without regard to their function or and their societies for ages. People have importance to the original community. This always wanted to preserve history and continued as archaeology became popular and understand where we as humans came from. excavations for ancient artifacts were set up. The earliest recorded collection similar to a Results of excavations were held and exhibited museum dates back to ancient Babylon, when in museums in European countries, where the Princess Ennigaldi-Nanna collected artifacts majority of research was conducted. which were up to 1,500 years old, then organized and arranged them to be seen. Each artifact was labeled with its provenance meticulously written out on clay tablets. Modern museums are often traced back to “kunstkamera” or cabinets of curiosities, popularized by Tsar Peter the Great of Russia. Educated and worldly aristocrats would collect natural and man-made objects that interested them. Collections of these objects were also meant to show off the wealth and culture of the collector, something that had previously been shown through art collection, or patronage. Collections of objects, artifacts, and art were not put together, but they had a common purpose which was the physical manifestation of a person’s status in a way that could be easily pointed to and shown off. Later these collections began to be exhibited to the public in the spirit of education. In the “Enlightenment” period collections became more organized according to scientific and rational criteria, used to promote research about the wider world. As “new” lands were discovered there arose a great demand in the “Old World” for souvenirs, relics, cultural objects, and natural specimens of plants and animals from these expeditions. Explorers would take living and dead specimens to study and display. This also happened with people. Native people of colonized areas would be brought to Europe and shown to the public alongside animals. Native people and cultures were exhibited as curiosities for a public that had never seen anything so different. Past Efforts by the United Nations UNESCO, or the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, was created after World War II. One of its first initiatives was the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. The convention was a response to World War II, in which cultural property had been stolen by the Nazi forces from individuals, primarily Jewish citizens, as well as looted from the surrounding areas or appropriated from museums and cultural institutions in occupied countries. In 1970, UNESCO convened the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. It was meant to as a large expansion on the foundation of the 1954 Convention and meant to offer an international framework and guidelines for preventing theft, looting, and encouraging the “return and restitution of stolen cultural property, in parallel with other advances in the fight against illicit trafficking.” 2 The convention defined “cultural property” as property “which, on religious or secular grounds, is specifically designated by each State as being of importance for archaeology, prehistory, history, literature, art or science,” ruled that the import, export, or transfer of ownership of cultural property was illicit. Each country, in signing on to the convention, agreed to create a national inventory of protected property, supervise archaeological excavations, and create certificates detailing the “provenance” or history of ownership, custody, and location of a historical object. The convention was not retroactive however and has no bearing on artifacts obtained before 1970. In 1978 UNESCO established the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation. It was meant to address restitution or return of lost cultural property where there were loopholes in previous regulations, for example cases which concerned objects acquired before the 1970 Convention came into force. A supplement to the 1970 Convention was added in 1995 to clarify and expand information about transfer of ownership of cultural property. Among its stipulations was a “uniform treatment for restitution of stolen or illegally exported cultural objects and allows private claims to go through national courts.” Efforts by Individual Nations While this international framework provided increased awareness and global support for nations seeking restitution of stolen or illegally exported cultural objects, there were many issues that remained unchanged. Many controversial artifacts were not covered by the 1970 convention’s regulations and required outside solutions. Most cases, and especially the most high profile cases, were private citizens claiming that objects were the personal property of them or their family, such as pieces of art which had been seized by Nazis during the second World War.

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