Significant documents of record recently produced and dealing with cultural property, heritage and related issues will be printed annually in the final issue (No. 4) of each numbered volume. Documents considered for publication may be national, regional, or international instruments and codes. Inquiries or suggestions regarding documentary materials may be addressed to the Chronicles Editor, Kurt Siehr, at ⟨[email protected]⟩ or the Editor, Alexander Bauer, at ⟨[email protected]⟩.

From 29th September to 1st October, a workshop was organized in Mexico City by UNESCO on the theme, “The Protection and Safeguard of Cultural Heritage Property of the Church of Latin America and the Caribbean.”

An Act to confer power to return certain cultural objects on grounds relating to events occurring during the Nazi era. [12th November 2009]

The International Conference on Human Rights and the Environment took place in Tehran in May 2009 and was attended by around 150 participants, including 10 international and five Iranian speakers. It was conceived as an opportunity to bring together leading international experts in this field to seek greater clarity on the important but, as yet, under-conceptualised question of the nexus between human rights and the environment. Both in the papers presented and in the resulting Declaration text, cultural heritage was seen as a key element in both aspects of this nexus and as fundamental to achieving a suitable accommodation between the two.

From May 9–14, 2008, the Salzburg Global Seminar convened its 453rd session—and its annual arts and culture session—on “Achieving the Freer Circulation of Cultural Artifacts” at Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg. Sixty two participants from twenty-nine countries gathered for the five-day session, aimed at building consensus among cultural authorities and museum representatives from around the world on ways to overcome legal, political, and practical obstacles to the circulation of cultural objects. Participants worked together to identify and assess new and better ways to promote the sharing of art and artifacts—from virtual access to practical strategies for significantly expanding loan programs worldwide. Whereas there are many museum conferences worldwide, few strive to bring together a multi-disciplinary and truly global group of participants for an open, informal exchange of thoughts and ideas in a neutral setting. The gathering in Salzburg, generously supported by The Edward T. Cone Foundation, succeeded in providing an evaluative international forum of this type, which brought diverse experts from a range of national and professional contexts into dialogue and gave them the opportunity to reflect deeply and openly on ways to increase the international exchange of cultural artifacts.

In August 2008 the Seventy-third Conference of the International Law Association (ILA) in Rio de Janeiro adopted the Cultural Heritage Law Committee's “Guidelines for the Establishment and Conduct of Safe Havens for Cultural Material,” the text of which appears in this issue. The Committee, after discussing its on-going project concerning the relationship between international trade law and the protection of cultural heritage, decided to focus on national export controls.

As an UNESCO initiative, Mexico was chosen as the country to host a seminar about the illicit trafficking of religious cultural objects. This problem is severe in the region and the idea was received with great enthusiasm by all.