The main objective of the meeting, organised by the ECOWAS Commission is to assess the roadmap of the Action Plan on the return of the cultural property, with the view to reorienting the implementation of the said Action Plan.
Delving into the background of the Regional Committee monitoring the implementation of the 2019-2023 ECOWAS Action Plan, Madam Fatou Mass Jobe of The Gambia, a former Minister of Tourism and Culture and Gambian ambassador to Malaysia, said the ECOWAS 2019-2023 Action Plan on the Return of Cultural Property to its countries of origin was approved by the December 2019 Assembly of Heads of State and government with the aim of contributing to the return of the cultural heritage of ECOWAS Member States to their countries of origin to reconstitute the regional cultural heritage.
This is the vision that “cultural heritage is reconstituted, valued and contributes to regional integration and sustainable development of ECOWAS Member States,” while she disclosed that the Action Plan for the Return of the Cultural Property to its countries of origin is in three strategic axes. This includes “capacity building of returned cultural heritage actors; strengthening measures for the protection, promotion, enhancement, and transmission of the cultural heritage of the Member States, and finally strengthening regional and international cooperation for the return of cultural heritage properties to their countries of origin.
Madam Fatou Mass recalled that at the first meeting of the Regional Committee to monitor the implementation of the 2019-2023 ECOWAS Action Plan on the return of cultural property to their countries of origin held from 29th June to 1st July 2021 in Cotonou, deliberations were on the Action Plan, presentation of the challenges of ratifying the UNIDROIT Convention and the 1970 Convention within the framework of the restitution of cultural property to their countries of origin among others.
However, in the ongoing meeting starting 21st through 22nd July 2022; she said, the points of discourse include the implementation of the Action Plan on the Return of Cultural Property to its countries of origin (activities already underway or ongoing); consideration of the concept note of the International Symposium on Restitution and approach for the inventory of cultural property in the western countries (presentation of the terms of reference) among host of others.
