Italian Cultural Blue Helmets course to Emirates police complete
Rome - The "Cultural Heritage Protection" course held by the Italian Cultural Blue Helmets for the Tourist Police of the United Arab Emirates, organized as part of the "Technical Arrangement" collaboration protocol signed in March 2016 between the Comando Generale dell'Arma dei Carabinieri (Carabinieri police force general command) and Abu Dhabi Police (PAD) has just ended. "The course in Abu Dhabi, like all the other training schemes conducted abroad so far, confirms the international prestige of the Italian Cultural Blue Helmets - declares the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, Dario Franceschini - and the role recognized across the globe to this specialized department of cultural heritage protection". The training, which began on 29 October, made it possible to share the know-how and experience acquired by the Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale (cultural heritage protection police force) in its nearly 50 years of activity. The Italian model for protecting cultural heritage was presented, starting with sector-specific regulations and international agreements, and also dealing with the database of stolen cultural heritage. The course also illustrated the preventive and repressive activities undertaken to protect cultural heritage from natural disasters and human criminal activities. Specifically, certain "case studies" were analyzed, involving transnational investigative activities conducted to repress the illegal trafficking of archaeological heritage.At the end of the course, which ended with the diploma-awarding ceremony, the Chief of the Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale, Fabrizio Parrulli, and the Director of the Criminal Investigation Directorate, Tarek Al Ghool, met up to investigate further forms of collaboration, in the United Arab Emirates, for a database of stolen cultural heritage based on the Italian model.