In accordance with Decision 3.SC/4.3, adopted at the Third Session of the Subsidiary Committee to the Meeting of States Parties to the 1970 Convention (UNESCO Headquarters, 28 - 30 September 2015), a joint meeting of the two Bureaus (Bureau of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and Bureau of the Subsidiary Committee of the Meeting of States Parties to the 1970 Convention) took place for the first time on 7 December 2015 at UNESCO Headquarters, room XI.  

The joint meeting was opened by the Director of the Division for Heritage after which the participating member states exchanged information on the destruction of cultural heritage during armed conflict and the illicit trafficking of cultural property, specifically in Iraq and Syria. The second half of the meeting was devoted to a productive exchange on the organization of awareness-raising and training of the military, police force and custom officials in times of armed conflict for the protection of cultural heritage and against its illicit trafficking.  

In the framework of the World Heritage Committee meeting in Bonn (June 2015) and subsequent adoption of the Joint Statement by the Chairpersons of the six UNESCO Cultural Conventions Committees, the members of the Bureaus agreed to encourage the Director-General of UNESCO to organize a meeting with the six Chairpersons during the fourth session of the Subsidiary Committee to the Meeting of States Parties to the 1970 Convention, provisionally scheduled for September 2016 at UNESCO Headquarters. Reports by the Rapporteurs of the respective Committees on the outcomes of the Joint Meeting of the Bureaus will be shared with their relevant bodies.