Human Rights and Democracy - Official Documents

guidelines cover three categories of property: property owned by religious or
communal organizations; that owned by private individuals; and heirless property.
More than forty countries endorsed the guidelines, including the US, Canada and
Israel as well as European and Latin American states. These guidelines are not
themselves legally binding and need to be reflected in national legislation. But as
one of the last outstanding Holocaust-related issues, it was symbolically important
that agreement was finally reached. We are encouraging all other countries to adopt
these guidelines expeditiously in order that outstanding claims to immovable
property may be resolved as soon as possible through fair and transparent
processes. Comparable guidelines on the restitution of looted art were agreed as
long ago as 1998 in the so-called Washington Principles. In the UK, the Spoliation
Commission has adjudicated on a number of cases to return stolen and looted works
of art to their rightful owners. We are working with a number of European
governments on other cases where it may be possible for the Government to help
unblock legal or bureaucratic obstacles to restitution.
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