Article

The review process of the 1954 Hague Convention for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict and its impact on international humanitarian law

Jan Hladik

• Yearbook of international humanitarian law, vol. 1, 1998, p. 313-322

English

In 1990, the Secretariat of UNESCO initiated a review of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Expert meetings held between 1993 and 1997 revealed five areas of concern. First, the notion of military necessity has been a contentious issue since the Convention’s original drafting in 1954. Some states believed its inclusion in the Convention opened the door to abuses, while others insisted that the failure to incorporate a standard of military necessity “could have disastrous effect”. The second and third concerns highlighted were the failure of states to adopt the necessary measures to punish individual citizens, and the failure of states to make reparations for violations of the Convention. By 1998, only 15 of 90 states party to the Convention had passed legislation to enforce it domestically. This is connected to the fourth concern: the creation of an international tribunal to prosecute violators was fraught with jurisdictional problems. Lastly, the experts produced two different draft amendments regarding the proper structure of an advisory body, upon which consensus was not reached. [Summary by students at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law (IHRP)]

• Yearbook of international humanitarian law
• Yearbook of international humanitarian law [Vol. 1, 1998]