On May 14th, 1954, the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict was brought into being. The 70th anniversary of the convention was celebrated with a major international conference organised by UNESCO and the Netherlands in The Hague from May 13th to 15th, 2024: “Cultural Heritage and Peace: Building on 70 Years of The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict”.
One of the central topics of the conference was the tasks and roles that the military has in protecting cultural property. On the one hand, it is a legal obligation to take care of the issue, to carry out training in peacetime and to set up specialist staff to be able to respect and protect cultural property if the worst comes to the worst.
But protecting cultural property is not just a legal obligation, as Anna Kaiser, Head of the Center for Cultural Property Protection, who was invited to the conference in her role as a reserve officer in the Austrian Armed Forces, emphasizes: “Protecting cultural property can save lives, including those of our own soldiers. An argument that no commander will be able to ignore.”
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