CULTURAL HERITAGE POLICY

Ukraine has more than 140 thousand monuments and objects of immovable cultural heritage. Among these, almost half (49.8%) are archaeological monuments, about 37% are monuments of history, more than 11.1% are architectural and urban planning monuments, about 2% are monuments of monumental art and less than 0.1% are registered monuments of science and engineering, landscape architecture and landscape.

One aspect of national conservation of cultural heritage is its popularisation, creating a positive and attractive image of Ukraine worldwide.

The main task in the field of cultural heritage is to ensure conditions to preserve the cultural heritage for future generations, through its recording and accessibility.

The State has the duty to preserve the cultural heritage in accordance with the Constitution and laws of Ukraine, and with a number of international conventions ratified by Ukraine that have become part of its national legislation.

 INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

Protecting cultural heritage is one of the priorities of state and local government. The situation in this area and the creation of appropriate conditions for solving problems are under the permanent control of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine which acts as a central executive body that formulates and implements the state policy in the sphere of cultural heritage, manages the drafting of relevant laws in Ukraine and oversees their implementation. The Ministry directly manages the activities of the state institutions related to the culture and the arts, including all the institutions that have a national status.

The system of public institutions linked to culture also includes 24 regional and one city (Kyiv) Departments of Culture (Appendix 1). The latter are structural units of district state administrations, cultural heritage institutions of regional state administrations, and cultural heritage protection bodies of local governments.

In addition, scientific institutions coming under the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and sectorial ministries (Institute of Archaeology, Institute of National Remembrance, Institute of History of Ukraine, Institute of Art History, Ethnology and Folklore, Institute of Monument Protection Research, State Research Centre for protection of cultural heritage from man-made disasters, National Research and Restoration Centre) are involved in solving problems linked to the study and preservation of historical, cultural and archaeological monuments and developing methodological principles in the monuments sphere.

 LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Laws of Ukraine:

• "On the Protection of Cultural Heritage" (from 08.06.2000 №1805-III)
• "On Protection of the Archaeological Heritage" (from 18.03.2004 №1626-IV)
• "On export, import and return of cultural property" (from 21.09.1999 №1068-XIV)

 RATIFIED INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS

• Convention Concerning Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, (Date of ratification 04.10.1988)
• European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (revised) (Date of ratification 10.12.2003)
• European Landscape Convention (Date of ratification 07.09.2005)
• Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, (Date of ratification 20.09.2006)
• Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage of Europe (Date of ratification 20.09.2006)