As Peter mentions in his introduction, 2021 was a signal year for the Blue Shield in so many ways.
This year BSI was delighted to welcome Dr Michael Delacruz to the Secretariat. Meet him here…
This year we also sadly lost a key figure in Blue Shield’s history, Nancy Wilkie. Nancy was one of the founders of the USA’s national committee of the Blue Shield and served as Secretary from 2006-2013 and as President from 2013-2020. Nancy was an elected member of the Interim Board of Blue Shield International 2014-2017 and of the Board 2017-2020. Read her obituary here…
25 years ago, four international heritage organisations recognised the need for greater cooperation to protect cultural heritage at risk from conflict and disaster: the International Council on Archives (ICA), the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). Together they founded the International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS), with a vision for national committees across the world.
BSI started our anniversary celebrations with a panel discussion with the four people who founded Blue Shield on 6 June 1996, looking back at what inspired them, and their vision for the organisation, to be chaired by the first President of the Blue Shield Association, Karl Habsburg.
As part of the celebrations we interviewed our four founders – you can hear more from them in these short videos. (Long versions are available in the archives).
We were also excited to create a gallery of blue shields from around the world to raise awareness of the importance of the blue shield emblem in protecting the world’s most important cultural property in conflict. People around the world shared images of blue shields, highlighting the variety of protected cultural property to be protected. Take a look at the gallery to learn more about this vital emblem.
Blue Shield plaque on Pitigliano (Grosseto, Toscana) late medieval town’s walls and gate. Proposed by Arturo Marcheggiano, the founder of the SIPBC-Italian Society for the Protection of Cultural Property (1996), this blue shield plaque has been the very first and for many years the only one in Italy. © Max Carcione, June 2018
The year was key not only for Blue Shield International (BSI), but for the National Committees (NCs), too, who are after all the backbone of the organisation. Without their presence and work on the ground the Blue Shield’s reach would be more limited and far less rich, as the presentations NCs gave during the monthly informal online gatherings show.
Mention must be made, too, of the new National Committees who joined the Blue Shield family in 2021:
Although published in 2022, work which began on strengthening relations with the African BS NCs and Blue Shield Germany in the later part of the year resulted in a fascinating and comprehensive publication Protecting Heritage in Crisis: Blue Shield in Africa.
In terms of emergency response, the huge and impressive efforts of the European National Committees to respond to the devastating floods and fires across Europe during the summer can be found here in their reports.
Blue Shield Germany
Blue Shield Belgium
Blue Shield Netherlands
Blue Shield Turkey
As Peter mentions in his introduction, training was another area where huge strides were made during the year, culminating in the first block of the planned three-part Blue Shield training course for National Committees and highlighting, amongst other crucial issues, that:
Cultural property provides the tangible (objects, building sites, monuments) and intangible (stories, songs, dances) links to the past, that help to provide individuals and communities with a sense of place, identity, and belonging, contributing to individual and communal wellbeing and dignity.
Whilst also emphasising:
The protection of people is enshrined as a military and humanitarian responsibility in wider international humanitarian and international human rights law. And it is indivisibly intertwined with the protection of people’s cultural property. We’re not just protecting old things that are of interest to heritage people. We’re protecting the development and the re-establishment of healthy, safe, secure, sustainable communities.
In addition to our internal training, BSI both ran and participated in one-off and regular training activities with different military, NGO, humanitarian, and heritage sector organisations and units, as shown in the following examples
CPP training and capacity building with national and local emergency services, as well as with staff and volunteers from museums, libraries, archives, heritage sites and with youth were a mainstay of many NCs’ activities throughout the year.
Throughout 2021, BSI strengthened its interaction and partnership with authorities, policy makers, legal experts, heritage institutions and civil society organisations and communities. In addition to attending the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office Civil Society Dialogue Network Policy Meeting – The EU Concept on Cultural Heritage as a Component for Peace and Security in Conflict and Crisis Zones: Gathering Civil Society Input, and the United Kingdom Wilton Park meeting on Cultural Heritage Protection, Development and Diplomacy: International Approaches, BSI has attended and run events with partners around the world, in particular a number of Blue Shield national committees whose conferences are available online:
In addition to a number of anniversary conferences, hosted by National committees, the UK Blue Shield hosted a highly successful panel – What is Cultural Property Protection (available here).
The year closed with an extremely successful, two-day 25th Anniversary Conference that brought together the Blue Shield family with present and potential future partners. Also taking part was a wide range of heritage experts from different disciplines who both inspired us and gave us much food for thought with their presentations. Once again we extend our sincere thanks to all of them.
The conference was followed by the Blue Shield General Assembly, bringing together our members around the world, and confirming their commitment to protecting heritage in crisis.
