INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF BLUE SHIELD CALLS ON CONFLICTING PARTIES
IN MIDDLE EAST TO BE RESPECTFUL OF CULTURAL PROPERTY

Armenpress

YEREVAN, AUGUST 1, ARMENPRESS: ICOMOS International Secretariat
representative informed Armenpress that the International Committee
of the Blue Shield (ICBS) has released a statement on threatened
cultural heritage in the Middle East conflict.

The statement particularly says "The International Committee of
the Blue Shield (ICBS) deplores the unacceptable loss of human
lives, the considerable suffering, the rapid displacement of entire
communities, and the destruction that are currently taking place in
areas administered by Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority. It
is also extremely concerned by the threat that the present conflict
could escalate still further."

In the statement the committee calls on all parties to be respectful of
the cultural property in the region as cultural property is priceless
and irreplaceable, of vital importance not only to each community,
but also to humanity.

"It is universally recognized that this region has an extremely rich
cultural heritage, which has had a profound and lasting influence on
peoples throughout the world. This is demonstrated by the significant
number of sites in both Israel and Lebanon inscribed on the UNESCO
World Heritage list. The total or partial loss of cultural properties
in the area would seriously impoverish the collective memory of
mankind.

It would be a great tragedy if this is allowed to happen. ICBS
therefore calls on all parties to take the greatest possible care
to protect the rich cultural heritage of the region and to take the
necessary preventive measures to ensure that it is not damaged in
any way during the present conflict," the statement says.

In the statement the ICBS also says that being keenly aware that there
are other compelling concerns at times of armed conflict, not least
the loss of human life, it wishes to stress that international law
prohibits the use of cultural property for military purposes or to
shield military objectives and urges all parties concerned to respect
the provisions of The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural
Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols, as
well as the 1972 World Heritage Convention, which calls on countries
‘not to take any deliberate measures which might damage directly or
indirectly the cultural and natural heritage’ in the territory of
other countries that are party to this Convention. Israel and Lebanon
have ratified both of these Conventions.

ICBS was founded in 1996 ‘to work to protect the world’s cultural
heritage threatened by wars and natural disasters’.