The ICA Expert Group against Theft, Trafficking and Tampering (EGATTT) is pleased to invite you to the second webinar in its 2025 series, titled: Prevention and Protection: The Importance of Improved Security and Registrations in Cultural Heritage Institutions.
This hybrid session is being held as part of the joint conference organised by UNESCO and the Kingdoms Institute Platform for the Promotion of Documentary Heritage, entitled: Innovating Documentary Heritage for Sustainable Development in AlUla and Saudi Arabia.
The conference will take place from 29–30 April 2025, at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France, and will bring together national, regional, and international experts, institutions, and policymakers working in the field of documentary heritage.
The ICA/EGATTT-led session is scheduled for the first day of the event. Interested participants are welcome to join on-site or remotely. More information about the session agenda, guest speakers, and registration can be found below.
KEY INFORMATION
Time and date
Tuesday 29 April 2025, 14:00-16:00 CET (Paris time).
Location
This event will be hybrid (online and in-person at UNESCO HQ Paris).
Language
English and Arabic.
Time and date
Tuesday 29 April 2025, 14:00-16:00 CET (Paris time).
Location
This event will be hybrid (online and in-person at UNESCO HQ Paris).
Language
English and Arabic.
Please note: Both registration links cover the entire two-day conference (29–30 April), however, participants are not required to attend all sessions.
Background
The conference Innovating Documentary Heritage for Sustainable Development in AlUla and Saudi Arabia is part of UNESCO’s Memory of the World (MoW) Programme which aims to facilitate the preservation and access of the world’s documentary heritage and enhance public awareness about the significant of documentary heritage among the wider public.
For decades, UNESCO and the ICA have collaborated on MoW, demonstrated by the joint publication The International Council on Archives and the Memory of the World Programme: A Position Paper (2005).
The overall themes of the conference will look at safeguarding documentary heritage against threats in the Arab region, including:
- Preventative conservation and risk management,
- Traditional methods and sustainable practices in archival storage and preservation,
- Legal preservation and preventing illicit trafficking.
MODERATOR AND AGENDA
The session will be moderated by Eleni Polymenopoulou, Associate Professor of Law at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar.
Following introductory remarks and presentations from the panellists, there will be a Q&A session open to both in-person and online participants.
GUEST PANELLISTS
Arda Scholte
Presentation:Implementation of the UNESCO 2015 Recommendation to protect documentary heritage; EGATTT offers instruments to support the MoW programme.
Biography: Arda Scholte is Chair of the Expert Group against Theft, Trafficking and Tampering of archives (EGATTT), established in 2018. EGATTT is part of the International Council on Archives. EGATTT provides a forum for high-level discussion and expert advice. EGATTT focus on prevention and awareness raising, developing instruments and investing in co-operation with sister organisations like IFLA, ICOM and CERL, with law-enforcement (INTERPOL, WCO) and trade organisations. EGATTT underlines the strength of UNESCO’s and UNIDROIT instruments to protect documentary heritage. Arda is former chief inspector of the Netherlands Information and Heritage Inspectorate, a law enforcement organization. Besides the implementation of national laws on archives and heritage, the inspectorate is also responsible for the implementation of the UNESCO 1970 convention. Arda has fulfilled several management functions in the fields of heritage, youth and labour market policies. Arda has masters in art, education and social sciences.
Khaled Kchir
Presentation: Tunisia case study: legislation, trade, and the protection of documentary heritage.
Biography: Khaled Kchir is a professor of medieval history at the University of Tunis. His research focuses on the transmission of knowledge and the mobility of scholars in the Middle Ages through biographical dictionaries. In addition to the history of the Mamluks, he teaches codicology and diplomatics. He served as Vice-president of the University of Tunis (2017–2020) and has been the Director of the Laboratory for the Medieval Arab-Islamic World since 2013. He was the editor-in-chief of Cahiers de Tunisie (2020–2024) and co-director of the Tunisian-German research center Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM) (2020–2024). He is also the coordinator of the Hichem Djaït International Chair at the University of Tunis. He is currently the Director General of the National Library of Tunisia.
Stephane Ipert
Presentation: Illustrated Inventories and collections digitization to Prevent Theft and Support Market Due Diligence.
Biography: Stéphane Ipert is a lecturer at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, teaching Art Law & Crime. From 2015 to 2023, he served as Director of the Heritage Library at Qatar National Library (QNL), overseeing a unique collection of rare books, manuscripts, archives, maps, and related materials from the Islamic world.
Since 2022 he is committee member of EGATTT (Expert Group against Theft, Trafficking and Tampering of archives, established in 2018. EGATTT is part of the International Council on Archives.
From 1987 to 2013, Stéphane directed the Centre de Conservation du Livre in Arles, France, focusing on book conservation, preservation, and digitization, with international projects, especially in the Arab world.
In the 1990s, he trained staff at the Mashad Library in Iran and conducted expertise missions worldwide for UNDP, UNESCO, and the International Council on Archives (ICA).
With a background in art history and law from Aix Marseille Université, Stéphane has lectured at OSUN/AUAF since 2022, teaching courses on combating antiquities trafficking. Since 2023, he has been a researcher at the Athar Project and a consultant for UNESCO, focusing on heritage protection and combating trafficking in Southeast Asia and Yemen. Stéphane has authored numerous books and papers on Islamic art, heritage preservation, and legal issues related to documentary heritage.
Howayda Kamel
Presentation: The successful experience of the National Library and Archives of Egypt in the retrieval of its lost manuscripts.
Biography: Director General of the National Library of Egypt, at Bab El Khaleq; Advisor of Public and International Relations, the National Library and Archives of Egypt (NLAE); Supervisor of Foreign Cultural Relations; NLAE Chairman Office.
Howayda Kamel has a PhD degree in Spanish Language & Literatures, Cairo University. She is a member of IFLA Advisory Committee of Cultural Heritage and a member of ICA Expert Group Against Theft, Trafficking and Tampering.
She was the Co-Chair of SET Training School Project, for IFLA Education and Training Section and the Co-Chair of Cultural Heritage Definitions Survey Project, for IFLA Advisory Committee of Cultural Heritage. She has founded the Foreign Cultural Relations Department at the National Library and Archives of Egypt, where she worked as a supervisor, since 1999, in concluding cultural agreements with the corresponding entities worldwide, and organizing public, regional and international seminars, conferences and workshops.
She managed several regional and international projects in the fields of capacity building, preservation, restoration, and digital documentation of cultural heritage. She has contributed to the retrieval of four lost manuscripts from the collections of the National Library and Archives of Egypt, during 2018 and 2019. She worked closely with IFLA, ICA, MOW, JICA, AECID, the Library of Congress in USA, and Marburg University, among other distinguished cultural entities.
Marian Lefferts
Presentation: The quick audit tool QAT: A simple tool to test your security.
Biography: Marian Lefferts is Executive Manager at the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL). CERL is the international focal point for the engagement with historic printed books and manuscripts, the written heritage of Europe, represented by the collections of our members and beyond. The CERL Working Group on Collection Security has developed a tool that allows organisations to self-assess their collection security policies and procedures. While it was developed in a library context, various archival institutions have explored the tool and found it was equally applicable to archival institutions. In this presentation Marian Lefferts will describe how you can work with the Quick Audit Tool that is freely available from the CERL website.
