Protection of Cultural Heritage in International Law
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About this ebook
The Slovenian Law for protection of cultural property in her second article states that should be considered as cultural property: areas or complexes, constructions or buildings of various kind, objects or groups of objects and every materialized proof of human creativity and multiplex activity, the evolution of society and hers processes, characteristic for single defined periods into the history of a Nation or wider, is to be considered of public interest because of their historical, cultural and civil importance.
The peculiarity of this subject can be found in the fact, that it doesn’t enter in contact with just one legal and cultural sphere but it acts in the wide open space of the international community. The definition of cultural heritage has to take into consideration all the criteria and needs of various legal traditions and the different concepts of cultural heritage existing in the single nations.
No definition regarding the object of protection has been able to reach a global consensus. For that reason, every single State decides the extension of cultural heritage on its own soil in total autonomy. The concept of cultural heritage varies from State to State, and that makes necessary for every international document, to define its own area of application, specifying the meaning of terms like cultural object, monument or heritage.
Natasja Nikolic
-Bachelor of Law -Generally Secretar at MFD Foundation for the Promotion of the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Ethnic and Religious Minorities in Europe (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 74/2001) in Maribor, Slovenia -Assistant of director at IIAS- International Institute for Archival Science of Maribor and Triest
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Protection of Cultural Heritage in International Law - Natasja Nikolic
INTRODUCTION
Venice and its lagoon, Memphis and its Necropolis, the Alhambra in Granada, the Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Ethiopian rock churches, Wood Factory of Verla, Mont-Saint-Michel, Versailles, San Gimignano, the Taj Mahal, ..., Auschwitz. These are just some of the jewels that make up the complex puzzle of human heritage and of our collective memory.The answers to ancient questions of mankind, about who we are and where we are directed, also pass through these places, impregnated of ancient knowledge, but now more than ever we are aware of the general truth: the world we inhabit is not ours. It was trusted to us from our ancestors to look after him for our descendants.
The cultural heritage is limited and fragile. Archaeological findings dating several thousands years, that were made with all-natural materials, nowadays find themselves facing a climate-changing and increasingly polluted environment. The architectural excellence of all time are at the mercy of a wild urbanization. During armed conflicts the aim was to delete a whole society by hitting the enemy in his own culture. The cultural wealth possessed by the individual states are even more often the subject of a profitable illegal trade and systematic plunder, supported by the new technologies.
If years ago there were several groups of states coalesced with each other, there is now virtually a single international community that seeks to establish, by legal means and conventions, which behavior is considered right and which wrong. The art and the culture, in the eyes of international law, can no longer be purely a non-essential aesthetic or intellectual aspiration, that can easily be sacrificed for the war or the global economy. According to Massimo Carcione culture could go within the concept of Right to Happiness '
contained in the constitution of the United States of America, as is the human right to its own history, conscience, dignity and freedom, or what distinguishes a humans from every other living being.
International law has accepted the call to a collective legal protection of cultural heritage rather late. While he soon realized the importance of protecting the assets involved in armed conflict, for the first documents which cover the needs of cultural property in peaceful times we waited for the twentieth century.
The protection of cultural property in international law is complex matter which evolved gradually learning from his own failures and shortcomings. This text places the task of providing an accurate and complete systematic overview of the subject matter, moving from its historic genesis to the specific fields that compose it, ending with the presentation of the main international organizations dealing with it. The ultimate goal is to identify the needs of cultural heritage and the practical possibilities for its preservation. The second objective is to assess the effectiveness of legal measures taken so far and hazard a prediction about their future evolution.
The present text will try to explore the following areas:
• the evolution of the legal protection of cultural heritage in the international arena,
• the meaning of the following terms: cultural heritage, international protection, cultural internationalism, world cultural heritage,
• the objectives of protection of cultural property,
• how to protect cultural heritage during armed conflict ,
• the problems related to international traffic in works of art,
• the return of cultural and international agreements and the sanction
• EU legal acts,
• the European Convention on the protection of archaeological heritage and the European Convention on the protection of architectural heritage,
• the international organizations and non-governmental concerned with the protection of cultural property, their role,
• what are the remaining contracts that make up the international protection of cultural property and what to expect.
As already mentioned, we are debitors to the future of the world of yesterday. Is a specific responsibility of everyone, and especially in the hands of those who have the means to do it, to support this fight against the degradation, the looting during the war, vandalism, illegal trafficking, and especially against ignorance.
1. THE HISTORY OF CULTURAL PROPERTY IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
»Statuae nec in toto mutae sunt, quando a furibus percussae custodes videntur tintinnibus ammonere.«.
Cassiodoro (Variae VII,