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3rd Regional Thematic Seminar: Legal Frameworks for the Protection of Immovable Cultural Heritage
Zimbabwe 2002

Place: Mutare, Zimbabwe
Dates: 21 – 25 October
Partner: National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe

Seminar Objectives: The seminar had four main objectives:

• evaluate the current state of legal frameworks for immovable cultural heritage conservation in Sub-Saharan Africa;
• identify key issues related to heritage legislation and possible strategies for dealing with them;
• identify key issues related to the links between formal and informal (traditional or religious) legislative frameworks and possible strategies for creating interactions between them;
• develop an action plan for follow-up activities including an eventual publication on immovable cultural heritage legislation in Sub-Saharan Africa.
  

Structure: The topic of the seminar was identified during the 2001 Directors Seminar held in Mombasa, Kenya. The working language of the seminar was English. The participants were drawn from Botswana, Gabon, Nigeria, Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Namibia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The seminar was divided into two parts. The first included presentation of papers by participants outlining either a specific topic related to legislative frameworks or giving a case study of the legislative framework in a particular country. Following these presentations, plenary and small group sessions were held with the aim of pulling out the key issues and problems along with possible solutions/strategies for dealing with them. One day was set-aside for a visit to the Ziwa National Monument. Among the recommendations of the seminar were to:

publish and distribute the papers and discussion from this seminar;
to establish a working group which will develop reference material for those undertaking legal reforms.
Develop other programmes aimed at improving the legislation governing protection of cultural property.

Results:

• 20 professionals from Africa representing 12 countries participated in the event.
• 18 participants from previous AFRICA 2009 activities took part in the seminar.
• A document with the results of the working groups has been prepared
• 1 regional course participants from 2001 acted as one of the local organizers for the event.
• Recommendations for future actions were developed.
• A report with the results and recommendation of the seminar is now being finalized for consideration by the AFRICA 2009 Steering Committee.
• The Steering Committee is considering publishing the proceedings of the seminar as part of the upcoming AFRICA 2009 Publication Series.
  

For more information on the seminar, see the final report (Pdf 523 KB).