Donald Craib schrieb:
> The archaeological community needs your help in defeating a bill
> introduced in the U.S. Senate (S.1696) that if
> passed would have a detrimental impact on the ability of countries to
> protect their cultural heritage. In the next few
> weeks the Senate Finance Committee will consider whether to move forward
> with S.1696, and now is the time for
> senators to hear from the archaeological and preservation communities.
>
> Below is a brief summary of S.1696 as well as talking points for your
> letters. Letters should be sent to Chairman
> William Roth, Senate Finance Committee, SD-219, Washington, D.C. 20510,
> or comments via email can be sent to:
> [log in to unmask] Copies of letters should also be sent to your
> U.S. Senators as well. Addresses,
> including email addresses for all U.S. Senators can be found at:
> http://www.senate.gov/senators/index.cfm
>
> If your Senator is a member of the Finance Committee, a separate letter
> should be sent to her/him. To ascertain
> whether you Senator is on the Committee, visit:
> http://www.senate.gov/~finance/fin-comm.htm
>
> Thank you very much for your attention and if it is no trouble could you
> please send me a copy of any
> correspondence you send to the Senate.
>
> Donald Forsyth Craib
> Manager, Government Affairs, and Counsel
> Society for American Archaeology
> 900 Second Street, N.E.
> Suite 12
> Washington, D.C. 20002
> 202.789.8200
> 202.789.0284-fax
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> S. 1696: The Cultural Property Procedural Reform Act
>
> On October 6, 1999, Senator Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) introduced S. 1696.
> The legislation seeks to amend the
> Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (19 USC 2600), which
> was passed by Congress in 1982.
>
> Through the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (CCPIA),
> the United States became a party to the
> 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the
> Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of
> Ownership of Cultural Property (UNESCO Convention) that seeks to end the
> pillaging and destruction of important
> archaeological and cultural sites, and to protect the integrity of each
> country’s cultural patrimony, including our
> own.
>
> If enacted in to law, S. 1696 would inhibit the United States’ ability
> to enter into agreements with foreign nations to
> restrict the flow of undocumented antiquities, create a bureaucratic
> nightmare, and leave the CCPIA unable to carry
> out the purposes for which it was intended. Specifically, the
> amendments would:
>
> - alter the language of the CCPIA so that it no longer conforms to the
> terms of the international UNESCO
> Convention, thereby eroding the U.S.’s ability to work cooperatively
> with other nations and to adequately protect its
> own rich and diverse cultural heritage via the reciprocal protection
> that the treaty provides;
>
> - force the disclosure of confidential and highly sensitive information
> that would lead to the increased
> pillage of cultural sites and aid the illicit trade in antiquities;
>
> - effectively convert the existing Cultural Property Advisory
> Committee, created to provide expert advice
> to the President, into a partisan haven for special interests;
>
> - require vastly increased staffing and funding within the U.S.
> Department of State during times of budget
> cuts and institute complex procedures for the committee that would
> curtail its ability to perform its statutory duties.
>
> - impose significant administrative burdens on the Cultural Property
> Advisory Committee, which
> recommends to the President whether import restrictions on undocumented
> antiquities should be adopted. The
> ultimate result would be to reverse the leading role that the United
> States has played since 1983 in fighting the illicit
> trafficking in cultural property.
>
> Valuable information about our world’s past is being lost daily due to
> looting of archaeological sites in the United
> States, as well as abroad. Passage of S. 1696 would increase the demand
> for looted items, increase pillage of
> archaeological sites, and rob humanity of its past. The 1970 UNESCO
> Convention that seeks to protect the world’s
> cultural heritage was designed to protect nations’ cultural patrimony,
> not to benefit art dealers and auction houses.
>
> The archaeological community urges you to oppose S. 1696 and demand that
> the Senate Finance Committee
> schedule a hearing on the legislation.
>
geoff carver
http://home.t-online.de/home/gcarver/
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