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Ideological Warfare against Cultural Property: UN Strategies and Dilemmas

Ideological Warfare against Cultural Property: UN Strategies and Dilemmas With iconic cultural heritage in Afghanistan, Mali, Libya, Iraq and Syria at the mercy of Jihadi extremists, the international community’s somewhat feverish compilation of emergency measures illustrates both the sense of urgency now felt, but also how unprepared the world was to be confronted with ideological warfare against the ‘culture of the heretics.’ The laws of armed conflict, and in its wake international criminal law, provide relatively clear cut proscriptive rules against ideologically motived cultural destruction, which cannot be said of peacetime rules on cultural heritage protection. But the threat of incurring international responsibility and punishment is seen as inconsequential when the perpetrators’ driving ideology distains external laws. On UN level, the Security Council has resorted to a global trade ban to target two birds with one stone: to dry-up is’s source of income through illicit trade in Iraqi and Syrian antiquities and to preserve artefacts by making illicit excavation and pillaging economically unattractive. Unfortunately the situation on the ground, with its many uncertainties regarding domestic implementation means the effectiveness of this measure is in abeyance. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law Online Brill

Ideological Warfare against Cultural Property: UN Strategies and Dilemmas

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1389-4633
eISSN
1875-7413
DOI
10.1163/18757413-00190002
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

With iconic cultural heritage in Afghanistan, Mali, Libya, Iraq and Syria at the mercy of Jihadi extremists, the international community’s somewhat feverish compilation of emergency measures illustrates both the sense of urgency now felt, but also how unprepared the world was to be confronted with ideological warfare against the ‘culture of the heretics.’ The laws of armed conflict, and in its wake international criminal law, provide relatively clear cut proscriptive rules against ideologically motived cultural destruction, which cannot be said of peacetime rules on cultural heritage protection. But the threat of incurring international responsibility and punishment is seen as inconsequential when the perpetrators’ driving ideology distains external laws. On UN level, the Security Council has resorted to a global trade ban to target two birds with one stone: to dry-up is’s source of income through illicit trade in Iraqi and Syrian antiquities and to preserve artefacts by making illicit excavation and pillaging economically unattractive. Unfortunately the situation on the ground, with its many uncertainties regarding domestic implementation means the effectiveness of this measure is in abeyance.

Journal

Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law Online – Brill

Published: May 30, 2016

Keywords: Cultural property; ideologically motivated destruction; laws of armed conflict; peacetime protection; international criminal responsibility; UN peacekeeping; UN trade ban on Iraqi and Syrian antiquities

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