The international conference ‘Cultural Property Protection in the 21st Century: Meeting Requirements across the Forces’, held from 11 to 13 November 2024 at the National Defence Academy in Vienna, is now available online.
The conference covered a wide range of topics, such as the importance of cultural heritage for societies, the legal basis for the protection of cultural property, the destruction of cultural property as a war strategy and the benefits of new technologies for the protection of cultural property. Special attention was paid to the integration of cultural heritage protection into the education and training of armed forces.
During the conference, military and civilian experts exchanged views on current issues relating to the (military) protection of cultural heritage and discussed common challenges and opportunities for the increased, sustainable implementation of cultural property protection in the armed forces. The event also served to strengthen civil-military cooperation in line with the UNESCO initiative of a “civil-military alliance for the protection of cultural property” and the increased development of military capacities for the protection of cultural property.
The event was attended by numerous international guests from the civilian and military sectors, including representatives of armed forces from Europe, the USA, Africa or the Middle East and was organised in the framework of the 70th anniversary activities of the 1954 ‘Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict’.
The event was organised by Blue Shield Austria in cooperation with the National Defence Academy, the University for Continuing Education Krems, the Austrian Society for the Protection of Cultural Property and supported by UNESCO.
