Abstract
Throughout history, cultural property has permanently been at risk in armed conflict as belligerents always aimed at razing to the ground or plundering the enemy’s cultural heritage. Cultural property is a war victim time and again, either by armed attack or by collateral damage. This background opens the way for new insights into research on cultural heritage protection as a security issue in the 21st century. In order to fight the root causes of heritage destruction and extremism, UNESCO is advocating strongly a comprehensive approach, using also its “soft power” across the Organization’s mandate. Thus, despite its limited resources, UNESCO is an important actor in promoting a culture of peace, justice and tolerance on a worldwide scale.
Highlights
Throughout history, cultural property has permanently been at risk in armed conflict as belligerents always aimed at razing to the ground or plundering the enemy’s cultural heritage
Due to the political vacuum and the humanitarian crises created by the war in Afghanistan, and subsequently in Iraq, Libya, Mali and Syria, non-state actors and terrorist groups started to exploit cultural heritage as a fundraising mechanism for financing their activities and a war tactic
That means, going hand in hand with a quantitative change by increasing hostile acts against cultural heritage, we face a qualitative change as well: Cruelty36 and the on 19 June 2017, the UN General Assembly adopted a Resolution ”Strengthening the Capability of the United Nations System to Assist Member States in implementing the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (A/RES/71/291), where it was reaffirmed that terrorism and violent extremism “should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilization or ethnic group” (Preamble para. 9). 34 38 C/Resolution 48; revised on 24 October 2017 (UNESCO Doc. 39/C/57), 24 October 2017, para. 2
Summary
Throughout history, cultural property has permanently been at risk in armed conflict. In Resolution 2233 (2015), as of 29 July 2015, the Council took up the same wording, reaffirming “that all parties, including ISIL, associated armed groups, and militias, must respect human rights and abide by all applicable obligations under international humanitarian law, including those protecting the civilian population, by which both official Iraqi forces and member states that assist them must abide”. In Resolution 2233 (2015), as of 29 July 2015, the Council took up the same wording, reaffirming “that all parties, including ISIL, associated armed groups, and militias, must respect human rights and abide by all applicable obligations under international humanitarian law, including those protecting the civilian population, by which both official Iraqi forces and member states that assist them must abide”22 Still, it is doubted whether a wholesale embracement of rights and obligations of terrorist groups is the right way to go. Digital Artifacts: New Tools for Unmasking the Sale of Illicit Antiquities on the Dark Web, 13 February 2018, https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/7/2/12/htm. 30 Erik Nemeth, “Cultural Security: The Evolving Role of Art in International Security”, Terrorism and Political Violence, vol 19, no.1, 2007, pp. 19-42, p. 32
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