Protection Of Cultural Property In The Event Of Armed Conflict

Charting in detail the evolution of the international rules on the protection of historic and artistic sites and objects from destruction and plunder in war, this 2006 book analyses in depth their many often-overlapping provisions. It serves as a comprehensive and balanced guide to a subject of increasing public profile, which will be of interest to academics, students and practitioners of international law and to all those concerned with preserving the cultural heritage.

At the request of UNESCO, Jiri Toman, Acting Director of the Henry Dunant Institute in Geneva has written this detailed analysis of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict - still the only universal legal instrument in this field. The author has used the materials that emerged from the preparatory work for the Convention and has taken numerous examples from UNESCO’s records about the application of the Convention in conflicts over the last 40 years to illustrate this article-by-article commentary on the Convention itself, the Regulations for its Execution, and its Protocol. The author establishes parallels with other international legal instruments such as the 1977 Protocols Additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions or the other UNESCO conventions relating to cultural heritage and puts forward ideas for a more general study of the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict and the legal and practical ways of achieving this. This work should satisfy the expectations of politicians and those responsible for culture in the countries that are States Parties to the Convention, now numbering more than 80, and of those that are considering becoming parties to it, given the increasing calls being made for the international community to have greater powers to defend the cultural heritage from attacks to which it is too often exposed in armed conflicts today.

In 2009 it was ten years since the adoption of the Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of an Armed Conflict. To celebrate this anniversary, a variety of contributions, focussing on the legal and cultural aspects of the Protocol are presented by Van Woudenberg and Lijnzaad. The innovative aspects of the Second Protocol such as enhanced protection, criminal responsibility and jurisdiction, and the protection of cultural property in armed conflicts not of an international character are addressed. Some country-specific studies are included. It is hoped that this publication will inspire States to accede to the Protocol and that it will serve as a source of inspiration to legal advisers, military personnel and cultural property experts.

"Since the publication of the first edition of War and Cultural Heritage in 2004 there have been a number of important developments. The Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict has entered into force and there are now 64 States Parties. The Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict provided for under the Second Protocol has been set up and has adopted the Guidelines for the Implementation of the Second Protocol. Disbursements have been made from the Fund for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. In 2008 the United Kingdom published for public consultation the draft Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill, the legislation to enable the United Kingdom to become a Party to the 1954 Convention and its two Protocols and in 2009 the United States ratified the 1954 Hague Convention (but neither of its two Protocols). The time to publish a second edition of War and Cultural Heritage to take account of these and other developments is long overdue. The civil war in Syria has resulted in extensive destruction of that nation's cultural heritage. More recently in the conflict of Mali Islamist insurgents retreating from Timbuktu set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless historic manuscripts, described by the town's mayor as a 'devastating blow' to world heritage. These incidents demonstrate the need for all parties engaged in armed conflict to have regard to the rules of international law concerning the protection of cultural property. War and Cultural Heritage contains in a single volume an article-by-article commentary on the 1954 Hague Convention and its Two Protocols. The book also analyses other instruments of international humanitarian law relevant to the protection of cultural property. These include the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocols, which had a profound influence on the drafting of the 1954 Convention and the Second Protocol respectively. The book also examines the extent to which the provisions of the 1954 Convention and its Protocols are part of customary international humanitarian law. The book takes into account the latest developments regarding the international efforts to secure restitution of Holocaust-looted cultural property, including the work of the UK's Spoliation Advisory Panel"--Page 4 of cover

International law, cultural property, Hague Convention.

Significant attention today focusses on heritage destruction, but the key international laws prohibiting it - the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its First and Second Protocols (1954/1999) - lay out two core strands to limit the damage: the measures of respect for armed forces, and the safeguarding measures states parties should put in place in peacetime. This volume incorporates wide-ranging international perspectives from those in the academy, together with practitioner insights from the armed forces and heritage professionals, to explore the safeguarding regime. Its contributors consider such questions as whether state parties have truly taken "all possible steps", as the Convention tasks them; what we can learn from past practice, and how the Convention is implemented today; the implications of new trends in heritage law and management - such as the rise of the World Heritage Convention, and in the increasing focus on safe havens rather than refuges; whether new methods of heritage management such as Risk Assessment theory can be applied; and, in a Convention specifically focussed on state parties, what of their opponents, armed non-state actors. Using a mix of case studies and theoretical explorations of new and existing methodologies, the contributions cover a broad timespan from World War II to today, with examples from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Overall, the volume's purpose is to promote wider understanding of the practical effectiveness of the Convention in the contemporary world, by investigating the perceived opportunities and constraints the Convention offers today to protect cultural property in armed conflict, and firmly establishing that such protection must begin in peace.