BIICL participate in UNESCO International Conference

BIICL join the UNESCO International Conference in the Hague

This week the Institute's Dorset Senior Fellow and Director of the Centre for International Law, Kristin Hausler, took part in the UNESCO International Conference 'Cultural Heritage and Peace: Building on 70 years of The Hague Convention', which was hosted by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in The Hague from the 13th to the 15th of May. The Hague Convention for the protection of cultural property in situations of armed conflict was adopted on the 14th of May 1954 under the aegis of UNESCO. It was the first international treaty devoted exclusively to the protection of heritage.

The Institute was well represented as Professor Roger O'Keefe, Bocconi University and member of our Public International Law Advisory Panel, participated in the same panel discussion on criminal accountability for attacks against cultural heritage. Beyond accountability, experts from the heritage and military sectors covered many other topics including safekeeping measures and good practices in the conduct of rehabilitation projects.

Kristin Hausler was also recently nominated as the Chair of the ILA Committee on the safeguarding of cultural heritage in armed conflict. This newly established Committee will be meeting for the first time in June at the ILA biennial conference in Athens.