Report on the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage presented at the ILA Conference
At the recent International Law Association (ILA) conference in Vienna the committee on safeguarding cultural heritage in armed conflict presented its interim report.
International law has traditionally focused on tangible cultural property—monuments, archaeological sites, museums, archives, religious buildings, and works of art. Yet armed conflict can also destroy heritage without destroying a physical object. Languages, traditions, rituals, oral histories, craftsmanship, artistic practices, knowledge systems, relationships with land and nature, and intergenerational cultural transmission can all be disrupted by conflict, occupation, displacement, and demographic transformation.
Safeguarding cultural heritage therefore requires protecting not only objects and sites, but also the people, communities, practices, and knowledge that give them meaning.
The new committee on safeguarding cultural heritage in armed conflict has three key objectives: first, to conduct a gap analysis of the international legal regime addressing the safeguarding of cultural heritage from the effects of armed conflicts; second, to identify good practices stemming from past efforts to redress the harm caused to cultural heritage; and third, to develop policy-oriented and recommendations for ensuring that cultural heritage is addressed in a comprehensive and adequate manner at all stages of an armed conflict in order to harness its potential as a vehicle for lasting peace.
The committee is chaired by BIICL colleague Kristin Hausler with Prof Andrzej Jakubowski.
