BS Board Report 2020-2023 available now

At the General Assembly on 31 May 2023, Peter Stone, President of the Blue Shield, presented the Board Report 2020-2023. This report highlights the increasing and varied activity of Blue Shield International over the term of the Board (2020-2023). At the General Assembly, several Board members stepped down – in some cases following many years of service – Blue Shield thanks them for all their work. 

Highlights include:

• Increasing recognition of our military training in CPP and human security, with the launch of a multi-national CPP course at the United Nations Training School Ireland (UNTSI); training for the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL; and with numerous branches of NATO.
• Support for the promotion and implementation of international humanitarian law, specifically the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols (1954/1999).
• Monitoring and support for situations of conflict and disaster, remotely and in person, including working to secure the safety of heritage experts and collections in Afghanistan, and field visits to Ukraine.
• Recognition of our illicit trafficking training, for example through regular support for the Transnational Threats Department of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Scenario-based Workshops on the Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property, and extensive support offered by the Blue Shield Countering Trafficking Working Group.
• Co-hosted Expert Stakeholder Workshop: Cultural Property Protection: Global Capacity and Financing
• An award and letter of thanks from the Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) for our support to LAF for the protection of damaged historic buildings following the Beirut explosion in August 2020.
• Regular awareness raising with over 40 talks and presentations at conferences and workshops, most of which were invited, in 24 countries.
• Strengthening existing partnerships and developing new ones – MoUs and Actions Plans were signed with Biladi, Blue Shield Lebanon, Cultural Emergency response, Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative, and NATO SHAPE.
• And many others!