ENHANCING THE PROTECTION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE IN ARMED CONFLICT
Karl Jagdis, Head of Implementation - Hague Convention and Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Act 2017, karl.jagdis@culture.gov.uk
Yes
The UK government has made a commitment to ratify the 1954 Hague Convention and accede to its two Protocols and Parliament has endorsed this – the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Act 2017 was passed with support from all sides in Parliament in February 2017. The Act makes the necessary provision in UK domestic law to ensure that the UK can comply with the Convention and Protocols, thereby enabling the UK to become a state party to both.
The UK General Election and subsequent government reshuffle have intervened in the process of ratifying of the Convention and acceding to its Protocols but the UK government remains committed to doing so at the earliest opportunity.
DCMS launched the £30m Cultural Protection Fund in June 2016. The fund is a competitive grants based fund available between 2016/17 and 2019/20. Its objective is to protect and rebuild opportunities for economic and social development through building capacity to foster, safeguard and promote cultural heritage overseas.
The geographical focus of the Fund is confirmed as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, specifically Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen.
Of the £30 million Fund £3 million was allocated in mid 2015 to the British Museum Emergency Heritage Management Training Scheme in Iraq, now classed as a pilot project for the Fund.
The Cultural Protection Fund is being managed by the British Council in partnership with DCMS. The British Council are responsible for managing the grants process for the Fund and have drawn in additional expertise to support the project selection process.
To date over £14m has been awarded to projects over the life of the fund.
HMG have liaised with cultural protection and international humanitarian law experts throughout the legislative and ratification processes and will continue to do so as the Hague Convention and its Protocols, and the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Act 2017, are implemented.
DCMS went out to consultation on the proposals for the Cultural Protection Fund in early 2016 (receiving 63 responses); and in conjunction with that process, DCMS and British Council set about the design of the grant fund through a combination of weekly modelling workshops; fortnightly Executive Group meetings between the British Council and DCMS; and drawing on the input of expert advice from a newly established DCMS-led Expert Steering Board made up of government officials (DfID, MoD and FCO), heritage experts, the devolved administrations and museum curators. To inform and test out the design work, we ran two stakeholder workshops attended by over 40 sector representatives.
Following ratification of the Convention and accession to its Protocols, HMG will work with the British Red Cross and other stakeholders to disseminate the Convention and Protocols and spread awareness and understanding of their provisions and requirements.