1. ECA Launches the Arts Envoy IPR Program

   The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs launched the Arts Envoy Intellectual Property Rights Program in December to highlight the importance of protecting intellectual property rights (IPR) of visual and performing artists.

2. Cultural Antiquities Task Force Conducts Law Enforcement Workshops in Greece and Qatar

   Nexus between the climate crisis and cultural property trafficking explored in Athens and Doha.

3. Cultural Antiquities Task Force Organizes Law Enforcement Workshops in Cambodia and Ecuador

   Police and archaeologists team up to protect heritage sites.

4. U.S.-Libya Cultural Property Agreement

   Description of the cultural property agreement between U.S. and Libya.

5. Cultural Antiquities Task Force Conducts Law Enforcement Trainings in Cyprus, Greenland, and Egypt

   The State Department-led Cultural Antiquities Task Force (CATF) recently resumed in-person training for foreign law enforcement officials through a series of workshops held in May 2022 in Cyprus, Greenland, and Egypt.

6. United States and Peru Extend Memorandum of Understanding, Over 2,000 Items Have Been Repatriated

   This week, the United States and Peru will extend their Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to continue import restrictions on archaeological and certain Colonial period material from all areas of Peru.

7. Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee Meeting

   On June 1, 2023, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, Scott Weinhold, convened a meeting of the Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee. The Committee discussed cultural heritage protection in Ukraine and Sudan, recent multilateral engagement, and trainings and investigations with international law enforcement partners.

8. Iraq Cultural Heritage Project

   This multi-tiered project was developed by ECA's Cultural Heritage Center in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage.

9. Assistant Secretary Satterfield Leads Meeting of Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee

   On April 12, 2022, the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, Lee Satterfield, convened the 16 member agencies of the Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee (CHCC).

10. Cultural Antiquities Task Force Conducts Training Countering the Trafficking of Paleontological Resources

    The U.S. Cultural Antiquities Task Force (CATF), coordinated by the U.S. Department of State, held a virtual training workshop for law enforcement officials from the United States to enhance their knowledge of paleontological resources and build their capacity to protect those materials by disrupting trafficking in them.

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