Now that the Titanic has turned 100, it is being protected by a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage.

On the night of 14 April 1912, the ship struck an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic and sank the next day.

No single country can claim the site, because the wreck is in international waters.

States parties  to the UNESCO convention can outlaw the destruction, pillage, sale and dispersion of objects found at the site.

There have already been recovery dives and UNESCO is asking that equipment or commemorative plaques not be left at the site.

Julie Walker spoke with UNESCO’s Ulrike Guérin about the Titanic.

Duration: 3'44"