ULSACMUN 2010. 6, 7 y 8 de mayo. ¡Participa!

Dear delegates,

We are honored to receive you in our second Model of the United Nations, ULSACMUN 2010, and especially in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) committe. This organization is very important for the UN and for the international community worldwide, because it protects and promotes education among societies and culture into and between countries.

In this occasion, our agenda is formed by two interesting and transcendent topics. The first one refers to the licit and illicit trade regarding cultural assests, which belong to the national history and heritage of many countries. It is crucial to face this topic, because it is a growing situation which is destroying many cultures woldwide. Our goal will be to create international laws and treaties by which the property of cultural assets contributes to the development of societies and building of peace. The second topic is focused on the economical exploitation of cultural sites all over the world, such as archeological areas, exhibitions or natural places. Touristic activities, exhibitions and economical trade contribute to the destruction of these cultural treasures. As the most important international organization dealing with these issues, our main concern is to protect these sites from deterioration, and to create new policies that promote their safe exploitation.

We would like to thank and recognize Mariana Padilla, Lorena Tapie and Susana Manjarréz, for their effort in gathering the information about these topics.

We encourage you to have a constant and productive participation giving proposals and supporting treaties that will benefit international education and culture. We are sure it will also represent a personal achivement to you. Finally, we would like to remind you that we are looking forward to help you in anything you need. Welcome to the UNESCO!

Yours faithfully,

Diego Gerardo Domínguez Cardona

President

Montserrat Colinas Picazo Elvira Ramírez González

Conference Officer Moderator

REMEMBER TO MAKE YOUR POSITION PAPER (POSICIÓN OFICIAL)

TOPICS

Topic A: Return of cultural assets to their original countries.

Trade in cultural property is a major, and growing, international business. Unfortunately, beyond the licit trade an international illicit traffic keeps increasing worldwide. The practices of theft, smugling, pillaging, and/or illicit import and export of cultural property are well known. This affects museums, public and private collections, legitimate owners or possessors, religious buildings, cultural institutions and archaeological sites worldwide. The protection of cultural heritage, as an expression of living culture, contributes to the development of societies and the building of peace.

Topic B: Risks of economical exploitation regarding cultural assets: Archeological sites and itinerating exhibitions.

There are several archeological sites around the world, most of them built thousands of years ago. These sites are treasures of the world's history, and some of them are World Heritage Sites. But they are also touristic attractions; and people want to visit them. This surely represents a great income of money for the people who live there, but the sites are being damaged more every year, and the time will come when these sites won´t be there anymore, and the universal culture will be destroyed. Is it more important the incomes for touristic activities or the preservation of culture?