The Working Group on Legal and Policy Development of the ICH NGO Forum is presenting a webinar on “Living Heritage under Fire – presenting the Interim Report of the International Law Association Committee on Safeguarding Cultural Heritage in Armed Conflict” on 17 November 2026 at 3 pm CET.
The four Geneva Conventions 1949 codifying the customary law of armed conflict prohibit the destruction or seizure of enemy cultural property except when justified by military necessity, while Additional Protocol I (1977) further prohibits attacks on the civilian population and strictly civilian infrastructure and industry. UNESCO’s 1954 ‘Hague’ Convention (1954) prohibits causing damage to or destruction of cultural heritage (including religious and historic buildings) in Article 4 which is regarded as a harm to the international community as a whole (Preamble). Although intangible cultural heritage is a newcomer to this legal picture, there is increasing interest in finding ways to apply this law to that heritage, and to use other legal avenues for this. The roles of NGOs and other civil society actors are also an important question for us to consider here.
Despite these and broader human rights protections, both tangible and intangible cultural heritage remain extremely vulnerable to damage, destruction and disappearance in times of armed conflicts, both internal or international. The work of the Committee on Safeguarding Cultural Heritage in Armed Conflict of the International Law Association and its remit to examine the current legal regime, its gaps and weaknesses and potentials for development and/or more effective enforcement is therefore extremely timely. The Committee’s Interim Report and future work will be presented in this webinar.
PRESENTERS
- Kristin Hausler, Dorset Senior Fellow & Director Centre for International Law at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, in London.
- Andrzej Jakubowski, Head Centre for Cultural Heritage Law and Sustainable Development, Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
meeting-ID: 858 3317 766.
