1. Cultural Heritage Center Sponsors Regional Workshops

   In March of 2007, the Cultural Heritage Center sponsored the first of four regional workshops on topics relating to the protection of cultural resources from looting and illicit trafficking.

2. United States and Mali Extend Cultural Property Agreement, Include Protection for Manuscripts

   The United States and Mali extended their Agreement to continue import restrictions on archaeological material from Mali.

3. 2019 Open Doors Report

   Today marks the start of International Education Week (IEW) 2019. This week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchanges worldwide.

4. Stolen Egyptian Treasures are Homeward Bound

   With its rich cultural history stretching back to the time of the pharaohs, Egypt has long been an inviting target for looters

5. Protect What’s Yours. Stop Daesh

   Daesh is looting and destroying your cultural heritage.

6. Kalpona Akter

   First Name

   Kaplona

   Participant Headshot

   

   Short Biography

   

    

   Content created by Virtual Intern Mira Yu

   Starting at the age of 12, Kalpona Akter worked long hours in Bangladesh’s garment factories as a child laborer after the death of her father. Despite enduring abuse and retribution for organizing fellow garment workers, she persevered and is now one of the most high-profile union organizers in the global garment industry.

   Akter has engaged with various international organizations including United Nations agencies to bring greater respect to garment workers in Bangladesh. As the Executive Director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS), she testified in the U.S. Congress before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That testimony helped frame legislation against slave-labor conditions for apparel manufacturing. Through BCWS, Akter has relentlessly campaigned for fair wages, factory safety, and the right to form labor unions and collectively bargain. The Bangladesh garment industry is the second largest in the world and nearly 85% of the workforce are young women looking for economic empowerment through the garment industry. Akter said that the poverty-level wages quickly destroy their dreams of economic empowerment.

   Akter was selected to participate in an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) in 2007 with labor leaders from nonprofit organizations around the world to understand the labor movement in the United States. The IVLP helped her create a worldwide network of individuals and organizations. At one point, a group of Bangladeshi migrant workers faced imprisonment in Jordan. She connected with a fellow IVLP participant from Jordan who provided legal services and helped the workers negotiate a safe return to Bangladesh. Akter credits her IVLP network for making that possible. Nearly ten years after her IVLP, Akter received Human Rights Watch’s Alison Des Forges Award in 2016 for her courageous activism to protect the dignity and honor of others.

   Kalpona Akter’s activism is personal and she works towards economic freedom for Bangladeshi garment workers and to bring them dignity and a living wage, one factory at a time.

    

   Media Links

   Improving the Life of Bangladeshi Garment Workers | Kalpona Akter | #BoFVOICES 2018

   Trade unionist Kalpona Akter - rights for women making clothes in Bangladesh

   Worker Voice: Kalpona Akter for Fashion Revolution Week 2017

   Home Country

   Bangladesh

   Last name

   Akter

   IVLP Alumni

7. United States and Turkey Work Together to Protect Cultural Heritage

   January 19, 2021. Ankara, Turkey: The United States and Turkey signed a new bilateral cultural property agreement that solidifies our shared commitment to combat looting and trafficking of cultural artifacts.

8. Unpublished

   Dr. Martin Luther King’s Legacy Lives on in Gandhi-King Scholars Initiative

   Last week, the Gandhi-King Scholars convened in India for the second portion of this people-to-people exchange.

9. Trafficking in Cultural Property from Southeast Asia Topic of Latest Virtual Law Enforcement Workshop

   On June 15, 2023, the U.S. Department of State’s Cultural Antiquities Task Force (CATF) held a virtual training workshop for law enforcement officials from the United States to enhance their knowledge of cultural property from Southeast Asia and to build capacity to disrupt its trafficking. 

10. Virtual Law Enforcement Workshop Addresses Cultural Property Crime in Central and Eastern Europe

    Virtual Law Enforcement Workshop Addresses Cultural Property Crime 

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