Blue Shield International, together with our partners, the Romanian Institute for Heritage of the Romanian Ministry of Culture, were delighted to welcome our guests to
Shielding the Past: 70 years of the Hague Convention
our 2024 General Assembly and Training Course in Bucharest, Romania, where we came together to celebrate the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict on its 70th anniversary.
Location: Spații ARCUB Gabroveni (Great Hall Arcub), and Palatul Mogoșoaia, Bucharest, Romania
Dates: 09-12 September 2024
Our meeting focussed on training in the safeguarding and protection of heritage in crisis and the implementation of the 1954 Hague Convention safeguarding measures, with a day devoted to training in risk management and conflict, as well as panels and workshops, and on building the Blue Shield, peer mentoring and encouraging new committees, and offering those creating them the chance to learn from their peers.
In person attendees included representatives from National Blue Shield Committees in Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, USA, and of course our newest Committee Under Construction – Romania, along with guests including Cultural Emergency Response. Also joining us in person were representatives from Malta who are interested in founding a National Committee, along with partners from the Romanian National Institute for Heritage, and civil responders from the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations. We were also delighted to welcome a number of distinguished Romanian guests. Our Founding Four members – ICOM, ICOMOS, IFLA and ICA – all joined us online, together with our National Committees including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czechia, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Netherlands, Norway, Pasifika, and Türkiye, and presentations facilitated from Cameroun, Mali, and Niger.
Programme
- It was a great pleasure for President Stone and Oana Zaharia, Interim Manager of the National Institute for Heritage to welcome guests with a reception and tour at Art Safari, in Bucharest Old Town.
- Our Romanian hosts also hosted accommodated the conference dinner, held at a traditional restaurant in the Old Town, Taverna Covaci – a wonderful experience.
- On Tuesday morning, the main programme opened with welcome speeches from our distinguished Romanian guests, followed by an opening speech from President Stone in which he stressed the importance of cultural property protection. The following panel discussion on the 70th anniversary of the Hague Convention was an excellent opportunity to build on these points.
- The Blue Shield General Assembly was hosted in hybrid format as part of the event.
- National Committees aim to coordinate the heritage sector, and ensure no heritage is forgotten in a crisis. They have the ability to look beyond legalistic definitions of heritage to the communities on the ground, those who make and use heritage – tangible and intangible. They can often reach further than government agencies, working in partnership with them, but advocating for change when needed. When Blue Shield was founded in 1996, it was with a vision for national committees in every country of the world. With that in mind, we were encouraged to provide a panel that would share perspectives on creating new national committees.
- A key element of the conference was the opportunity for National Committees and National Committees Under Construction to share experiences and learn from each other, from all round the world, in lightning rounds. Presentations were shared from France, Iceland, Czechia, Ireland, Belgium, Greece, USA, Australia, Cameroun, Pasifika, Cote d’Ivoire, Niger, Guatemala, Lebanon, Mali, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Austria, and Italy.
- It was our privilege to give the floor to two committees who experienced exceptional crises in 2023. The Chair of Blue Shield Iceland spoke about disaster response, saving an archive from a volcano, and the Chair of Blue Shield Türkiye spoke about their response to the devastating earthquake.
- The final day of the conference closed with a workshop on Implementing Respect in the 1954 Hague Convention. The Convention tasks armed forces to “work with the competent authorities responsible for safeguarding” (Article 7.2). That cooperative relationship is a fundamental principle of the Convention. However, misunderstandings about the obligations of the Hague Convention and its Protocols, and about the constraints armed forces operate under have long hindered the relationship between the heritage sector and defence. This workshop deepened the understanding of participants in building those relationships.
Field Trip Training
With the support of the National Heritage Institute, conference attendees were taken to Palatul Mogoșoaia, a Palace built between 1698 and 1702. The site consists of the palace itself, several historic outbuildings (some of which were used to showcase modern and religious art), the family mausoleum, a glass large conservatory, and very historic church.
The aim of the workshop was to explore how to implement the safeguarding obligations of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, using Palatul Mogoșoaia, specifically focussing on risk assessments for conflict. The workshop took place in a fictional scenario to help participants think about the foreseeable effects of conflict and consider appropriate measures.
The workshop was designed and facilitated by Emma Cunliffe, supported by Peter Stone and Andreea Pop, with thanks to the staff of the Palace, and to the National Heritage Institute staff for their tireless and skilful translation.
Participant Feedback
- The workshops and field trip were all excellent.
- Overall great conference and wonderful to meet everyone. I really enjoyed the workshop and hope to be able to do something similar.
- The quality of the Training Day and workshop on MonteCassino and the other case studies was very rewarding since they had provoked some excellent thoughtful discussion in small groups that reflected the complexity of delivering good CPP during armed conflict.
- I was delighted to be there and I learned a lot about the Blue Shield and its operation and got a deeper understanding of the Hague Convention from 1954. My world view expanded as well as I heard reports from other national committees.
- The workshop and scenario was great exercise and [I] would like to do more of these
- The workshop was a unique experience: no-one else really addresses these challenges. It really made me think about heritage protection in a new way: more people need to be exposed to these ideas.
