Director-General/Executive Director
Distinguished Ambassadors,
Distinguished speakers and colleagues,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to join you today at this important side event.
Allow me first to thank the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt for its leadership on this topic for several years now and for convening this event, and to express my appreciation to all of the co-sponsors — Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the Antiquities Coalition.
I am grateful to all of you for your unwavering commitment to protecting humanity’s cultural heritage.
Excellencies,
Trafficking in cultural property is a serious crime with many consequences.
It undermines cultural diversity and erodes identities.
It threatens social cohesion and deprives communities of important sources of income and sources of pride.
It fuels and finances broader transnational criminal activities.
And it compounds instability and fans the flames of violence, especially in conflict and post-conflict settings.
The international community has committed to act against this form of crime.
Egypt has led some of the most notable efforts at the United Nations on this front, including critically important resolutions at this Commission, at the General Assembly, and at the Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
More recently, the Pact of the Future saw Member States reaffirm their commitment to safeguarding cultural heritage, particularly in times of conflict, post-conflict, and natural disasters.
The G7 made similar commitments in its Naples Declaration.
And of course, the CCPCJ thematic discussion this year designates this topic as a focus.
There is broad global consensus on the goals.
But to achieve them, we need to address the large gaps that persist in legislation and in our understanding of this complex crime and its dynamics
We also need to build capacities of the different actors in the justice sector and sensitize parliamentarians.
And we need to mobilize young people and raise their awareness of this issue, to empower them to be guardians of their cultural heritage.
Distinguished delegates,
UNODC is proud to be working with all of you to advance responses against this serious form of organized crime.
Building on the mandate entrusted to us by Member States, our Office joined with INTERPOL and UNESCO to launch an initiative called Co-Action Against Trafficking in Cultural Heritage – or CATCH – in the Mediterranean.
CATCH is meant to be more than a project. It is meant to be a concept embodying a cross-regional, multi-agency response to trafficking in cultural property.
And we hope that the results will provide proof of concept, for an approach that can be replicated.
I am grateful to Cyprus for providing the seed funding that enabled the launch of the CATCH initiative.
In parallel to the CATCH initiative, and with generous support from the UK, UNODC has also delivered results in Egypt and in Lebanon.
In those two countries, we have provided specialized training to criminal justice and cultural heritage institutions, capacity building on open-source intelligence techniques, and planning tools to target criminal networks involved in cultural property trafficking.
And we are planning to provide further specialized training on document fraud detection, and to train judges and prosecutors on cultural property cases.
Recognizing the devastating impact of conflict, UNODC has also developed a dedicated brief on cultural property trafficking in Ukraine.
And to enhance information-sharing and coordination, UNODC launched a dedicated website on trafficking in cultural property, accessible to Member States and stakeholders.
Looking ahead, UNODC is working with the government of Egypt to convene a regional meeting in Cairo in October 2025 to strengthen regional cooperation in combating trafficking in cultural property.
Excellencies,
Our work together has produced real progress in our fight against cultural property trafficking.
But we need sustained political will and scaled up action.
Firstly, I call upon all Member States, international organizations, and partners to join us in expanding the CATCH initiative, to reach across the Mediterranean and beyond and safeguard cultural heritage.
Every contribution, whether financial, technical, or political, helps close the gaps that criminals exploit.
Secondly, I believe the time has come to work together on a comprehensive analysis of the criminal actors, typologies and challenges relating to the trafficking of cultural property.
This analysis would shed much-needed light on a crime that has thrived in darkness, and it would leave law enforcement, judicial, and cultural heritage authorities better equipped to design effective responses.
I call on our Member States to extend us with the support – and particularly the financial support – that we need to take this forward.
And thirdly, I want to take this opportunity to underline the role and responsibility of the private sector and civil society in protecting cultural heritage.
Working across sectors is the only way to establish provenance for every cultural object that exchanges hands, from museums to auction houses and from private collections to digital platforms.
It is time to have a broad discussion with the institutions and associations that deal with cultural property, and strive to end the impunity and ambiguity that sustain this illicit trade.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The legacies of our past embody some of our biggest strengths as a human family.
They embody the lessons of our success and failures; the identities that unite us in our humanity and distinguish us in our diversity; the stories that form the foundations for who we are today.
UNODC is committed to working with you to protect our cultural heritage, to honour those who came before and to empower the generations of today and tomorrow.
Thank you.
