Defining cultural heritage and cultural property
Cultural Property
When considering what cultural heritage is protected during conflict, there are many definitions of cultural heritage and cultural property in international law.
The earliest law relating to the protection of cultural objects is the so-called “Lieber Code” of 1863, which called for the protection of museums of the fine arts, works of art, libraries, and collections.
This was reflected in the 1907 Hague Regulations, which also called for the protection of: “buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, or charitable purposes, historic monuments” (Article 27 of the Regulations annexed to Hague Convention IV).
This was in turn echoed in Article 53 of Protocol I and article 16 of Protocol II (1977) of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which both prohibited “acts of hostility directed against the historic monuments, works of art or places of worship which constitute the cultural or spiritual heritage of peoples“.
Those laws are now considered to form customary international law, binding on all parties in all conflicts. However, what constitutes a “historic monument”, for example, is vague: when considering what cultural heritage is protected under these clauses, the key definition used is that in the 1954 Hague Convention.
Cultural property (CP) is defined in Article 1 of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict “irrespective of origin or ownership” as:
(a) movable or immovable property of great importance to the cultural heritage of every people, such as monuments of architecture, art or history, whether religious or secular; archaeological sites; groups of buildings which, as a whole, are of historical or artistic interest; works of art; manuscripts, books and other objects of artistic, historical or archaeological interest; as well as scientific collections and important collections of books or archives or of reproductions of the property defined above;
(b) buildings whose main and effective purpose is to preserve or exhibit the movable cultural property defined in sub-paragraph (a) such as museums, large libraries and depositories of archives, and refuges intended to shelter, in the event of armed conflict, the movable cultural property defined in sub-paragraph (a);
(c) centres containing a large amount of cultural property as defined in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b), to be known as `centres containing monuments’.
This broad definition has the flexibility to include new forms of CP that were of unseen importance or were unimagined in 1954, for example, film archives and digital archives and information. It can also include underwater cultural property. However, the drafting notes state that it excludes natural heritage.
The 1998 Rome Statute, which governs the International Criminal Court, refers back to customary international law and the Geneva Convention Additional Protocols (1977), by including attacks against “buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments” in its definition of war crimes (Article 8 (2bix)).
The other definition that is sometimes used to define cultural property is the definition in the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (the World Heritage Convention), which relates to heritage considered to have “outstanding universal value”.
Article 1
For the purposes of this Convention, the following shall be considered as “cultural heritage”:
monuments: architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, elements or structures of an archaeological nature, inscriptions, cave dwellings and combinations of features, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science;
groups of buildings: groups of separate or connected buildings which, because of their architecture, their homogeneity or their place in the landscape, are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science;
sites: works of man or the combined works of nature and man, and areas including archaeological sites which are of outstanding universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological point of view.
Article 2
For the purposes of this Convention, the following shall be considered as “natural heritage”:
natural features consisting of physical and biological formations or groups of such formations, which are of outstanding universal value from the aesthetic or scientific point of view;
geological and physiographical formations and precisely delineated areas which constitute the habitat of threatened species of animals and plants of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation;
natural sites or precisely delineated natural areas of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty.
Movable Cultural Property
The 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property relates to movable cultural property, and uses the following definition:
Article 1
For the purposes of this Convention, the term `cultural property’ means property which, on religious or secular grounds, is specifically designated by each State as being of importance for archaeology, prehistory, history, literature, art or science and which belongs to the following categories:(a) Rare collections and specimens of fauna, flora, minerals and anatomy, and objects of palaeontological interest;
(b) property relating to history, including the history of science and technology and military and social history, to the life of national leaders, thinkers, scientists and artist and to events of national importance;
(c) products of archaeological excavations (including regular and clandestine) or of archaeological discoveries ;
(d) elements of artistic or historical monuments or archaeological sites which have been dismembered;
(e) antiquities more than one hundred years old, such as inscriptions, coins and engraved seals;
(f) objects of ethnological interest;
(g) property of artistic interest, such as:
(i) pictures, paintings and drawings produced entirely by hand on any support and in any material (excluding industrial designs and manufactured articles decorated by hand);
(ii) original works of statuary art and sculpture in any material;
(iii) original engravings, prints and lithographs;
(iv) original artistic assemblages and montages in any material;(h) rare manuscripts and incunabula, old books, documents and publications of special interest (historical, artistic, scientific, literary, etc.) singly or in collections;
(i) postage, revenue and similar stamps, singly or in collections;
(j) archives, including sound, photographic and cinematographic archives;
(k) articles of furniture more than one hundred years old and old musical instruments.
This definition is reflected in the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention On Stolen Or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects.
Article 2
For the purposes of this Convention, cultural objects are those which, on religious or secular grounds, are of importance for archaeology, prehistory, history, literature, art or science and belong to one of the categories listed in the Annex to this Convention.
Annex
(a) Rare collections and specimens of fauna, flora, minerals and anatomy, and objects of palaeontological interest;
(b) property relating to history, including the history of science and technology and military and social history, to the life of national leaders, thinkers, scientists and artists and to events of national importance;
(c) products of archaeological excavations (including regular and clandestine) or of archaeological discoveries;
(d) elements of artistic or historical monuments or archaeological sites which have been dismembered;
(e) antiquities more than one hundred years old, such as inscriptions, coins and engraved seals;
(f) objects of ethnological interest;
(g) property of artistic interest, such as:
(i) pictures, paintings and drawings produced entirely by hand on any support and in
any material (excluding industrial designs and manufactured articles decorated by hand);
(ii) original works of statuary art and sculpture in any material;
(iii) original engravings, prints and lithographs;
(iv) original artistic assemblages and montages in any material;
(h) rare manuscripts and incunabula, old books, documents and publications of special interest (historical, artistic, scientific, literary, etc.) singly or in collections;
(i) postage, revenue and similar stamps, singly or in collections;
(j) archives, including sound, photographic and cinematographic archives;
(k) articles of furniture more than one hundred years old and old musical instruments.
Intangible Cultural Heritage
Today we recognise that culture, and cultural property, are broader concepts than physical objects, and can encompass intangible elements relating to the people whose cultural heritage it is.
Article 2 of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage has the following definition of intangible heritage:
1. The “intangible cultural heritage” means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity. For the purposes of this Convention, consideration will be given solely to such intangible cultural heritage as is compatible with existing international human rights instruments, as well as with the requirements of mutual respect among communities, groups and individuals, and of sustainable development.
2. The “intangible cultural heritage”, as defined in paragraph 1 above, is manifested inter alia in the following domains:
(a) oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage;
(b) performing arts;
(c) social practices, rituals and festive events;
(d) knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe;
(e) traditional craftsmanship.
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