Respect for a population's dignity is the same as respect for its culture. There are very few cases of this kind so far but we can clearly observe a growing concern about this type of war crimes and interest in prosecuting the perpetrators.Īmid the rampant IHL violations against human life and vital infrastructure, why is cultural property so important? Under article 8 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, the most serious violations constitute war crimes. Under IHL, States parties are obliged to prosecute and punish those found guilty of serious violations of these rules. But what we can say is that cultural property is protected in times of armed conflict by specific treaties, in particular the 1977 Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions and the 1954 Hague Convention and its two Protocols as well as customary IHL. What is the ICRC's view of the recent trial at the International Criminal Court of figures accused of destroying cultural property? So there is good synergy between the two. While the ICRC, through its Advisory Service on IHL, systematically promotes the rules protecting cultural property in the event of armed conflict and helps with their dissemination and domestic implementation, UNESCO has a very strong expertise in the field of developing standards and practical measures to protect cultural property. We might for instance facilitate contacts between UNESCO and other parties to help bring about the evacuation of cultural property at risk –an area in which UNESCO has more expertise and resources than we do. What would these new types of cooperation mean in practice?įor example there could be exchanges of information on specific threats of violations of the treaties protecting cultural property or attacks on it. >UNESCO and ICRC partner on the protection of culture heritage in the event of armed conflict The agreement also opens the way for a greater exchange of information between the ICRC and UNESCO aimed at protecting cultural property at risk and for the ICRC to potentially play an operational role in the rescue and evacuation of cultural property in some conflict situations. The ICRC and UNESCO have for many years helped States with this process of "domestication". These treaties are very specific but many provisions in them need to be integrated into States domestic law in order to be implemented. It's important in that it consolidates and reinforces the ongoing work by both the ICRC and UNESCO to encourage more States to become parties to the treaties protecting cultural property in the event of armed conflict. ![]() This is the first agreement of its kind signed between the two organisations. What is the significance of the MoU signed between the ICRC and UNESCO? Antoine Bouvier, of the ICRC's Advisory Service on IHL explains more about how it will work: The ICRC recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with UNESCO's the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation to further strengthen cooperation on this issue. What is however not so widely realized is that in the event of armed conflict, cultural property is protected under International Humanitarian Law. Considerable attention has focused recently on the destruction of historic monuments in many of the world's armed conflicts.
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