New international treaty to strengthen protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict, The Hague, 15-26 March 1999

摘要

The following report was submitted by Patrick Boylan, who was Head of the International Committee of the Blue Shield Delegation, Diplomatic Conference, The Hague, 15-26 March 1999. He may be contacted by e-mail at p.boylan@city.ac.uk. After two gruelling weeks, 15-26 March 1999, during which things often looked very bleak because of deep-seated differences between States, a new 2nd Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event ofArmed Conflict was adopted by unanimous consensus on the evening of Friday, 26 March in The Hague. So far as I could see the Heads of all 84 national Delegations taking part signed the "Final Act" of the Diplomatic Conference - though this does not commit any State to sign and ratify the new treaty itself: this will depend on often prolonged consideration and major new primary legislation at the national level in each case. The new Protocol represents the greatest advance in international cultural protection measure for decades - certainly since the 1972 World Heritage Convention, and probably since the original 1954 Hague Convention. It is also the most substantial development in the field of International Humanitarian Law since the Geneva Convention Additional Protocols of 1977. Both the World Heritage Convention and the 1977 Additional Protocols offered significant precedents for many of the innovations in the 1999 2nd Protocol just adopted, coupled with the long and sad experience of the failure of the original 1954 Convention to prevent great losses of important cultural property over the past 45 years, especially in the sort of "dirty" armed conflicts such as civil wars that have been a constant feature of the post-war world.