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Blue Shield International
The Blue Shield, formerly the International Committee of the Blue Shield, is an international organization founded in 1996 to protect the world's cultural heritage from threats such as armed conflict and natural disasters. Originally intended as the "cultural equivalent of the Red Cross", its name derives from the blue shield symbol designed by Jan Zachwatowicz, used to signify cultural sites protected by the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflict.
The Blue Shield's mission statement is in their statutes. It is a network of committees of dedicated individuals across the world that is “committed to the protection of the world's cultural property, and is concerned with the protection of cultural and natural heritage, tangible and intangible, in the event of armed conflict, natural- or human-made disaster.”
Blue Shield is a close partner organization with the UN, United Nations peacekeeping and UNESCO and in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Following the Second World War, which saw extensive damage and widespread theft of cultural heritage throughout Europe and Asia, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded in 1946 with the official aim of promoting peace, development, and dialogue through cultural exchange and preservation. At the behest of the Netherlands, UNESCO helped draft and sponsor the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, the first widely ratified international treaty that focused exclusively on the protection of cultural property in armed conflict; it entered into force on 7 August 1956, obligating states parties to protect cultural property in both peacetime and war, including those located in combatant nations.
The International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS) was established in 1996 by the four major non-governmental heritage organisations, which represent professionals active in the fields of archives, libraries, monuments and sites, and museums:
to further the protection of heritage in conflict. Article 27.3 of the 1954 Hague Convention Second Protocol (1999) explicitly mentions the International Committee of the Blue Shield as an advisory body to the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. The four organisations worked together to prepare for, and respond to, emergency situations that could affect cultural heritage. They were joined in 2005 by the CCAAA (Co-ordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations), who later left in 2012. The 'founding four' supplied a Secretariat for the organisation which rotated once every three years between them. Julien Anfruns was President of the International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS) between 2009 and 2013.
By 2000, national committees had begun to form to protect cultural heritage in their countries. In 2006, a conference Towards Solid Organisation: Infrastructure and Awareness was held at the Hague in the Netherlands, attended by the national committees and the ICBS. At this event, the Hague Accord was written, establishing the Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield (ANCBS) to coordinate the work of the national committees. The ANCBS came into formal existence in 2008: Karl von Habsburg was appointed as the first President. During this time, he undertook a number of fact finding missions to countries in conflict to learn more about the damage to their cultural heritage.
While in many wars the freedom of movement of the United Nations personnel is significantly restricted due to security concerns, Blue Shield is considered to be particularly suitable due to its structure enabling it to act flexibly and autonomously in particularly dangerous armed conflicts. Joris Kila, art historian for Blue Shield and the "Competence Center for Cultural Heritage" at the University of Vienna, sums it up as follows: "Unesco and other institutions consider it too dangerous to inspect the places in Libya themselves, whether they are damaged or not. So Karl von Habsburg and I decided that we had to do it ourselves. We were in Ras-Almergib, a site right next to Leptis Magna, where a radar and air defense station of the Gaddafi troops was destroyed, less than 15 meters away from a Roman fort that remained intact. The ancient site was on our list."
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Blue Shield International
The Blue Shield, formerly the International Committee of the Blue Shield, is an international organization founded in 1996 to protect the world's cultural heritage from threats such as armed conflict and natural disasters. Originally intended as the "cultural equivalent of the Red Cross", its name derives from the blue shield symbol designed by Jan Zachwatowicz, used to signify cultural sites protected by the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflict.
The Blue Shield's mission statement is in their statutes. It is a network of committees of dedicated individuals across the world that is “committed to the protection of the world's cultural property, and is concerned with the protection of cultural and natural heritage, tangible and intangible, in the event of armed conflict, natural- or human-made disaster.”
Blue Shield is a close partner organization with the UN, United Nations peacekeeping and UNESCO and in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Following the Second World War, which saw extensive damage and widespread theft of cultural heritage throughout Europe and Asia, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded in 1946 with the official aim of promoting peace, development, and dialogue through cultural exchange and preservation. At the behest of the Netherlands, UNESCO helped draft and sponsor the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, the first widely ratified international treaty that focused exclusively on the protection of cultural property in armed conflict; it entered into force on 7 August 1956, obligating states parties to protect cultural property in both peacetime and war, including those located in combatant nations.
The International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS) was established in 1996 by the four major non-governmental heritage organisations, which represent professionals active in the fields of archives, libraries, monuments and sites, and museums:
to further the protection of heritage in conflict. Article 27.3 of the 1954 Hague Convention Second Protocol (1999) explicitly mentions the International Committee of the Blue Shield as an advisory body to the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. The four organisations worked together to prepare for, and respond to, emergency situations that could affect cultural heritage. They were joined in 2005 by the CCAAA (Co-ordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations), who later left in 2012. The 'founding four' supplied a Secretariat for the organisation which rotated once every three years between them. Julien Anfruns was President of the International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS) between 2009 and 2013.
By 2000, national committees had begun to form to protect cultural heritage in their countries. In 2006, a conference Towards Solid Organisation: Infrastructure and Awareness was held at the Hague in the Netherlands, attended by the national committees and the ICBS. At this event, the Hague Accord was written, establishing the Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield (ANCBS) to coordinate the work of the national committees. The ANCBS came into formal existence in 2008: Karl von Habsburg was appointed as the first President. During this time, he undertook a number of fact finding missions to countries in conflict to learn more about the damage to their cultural heritage.
While in many wars the freedom of movement of the United Nations personnel is significantly restricted due to security concerns, Blue Shield is considered to be particularly suitable due to its structure enabling it to act flexibly and autonomously in particularly dangerous armed conflicts. Joris Kila, art historian for Blue Shield and the "Competence Center for Cultural Heritage" at the University of Vienna, sums it up as follows: "Unesco and other institutions consider it too dangerous to inspect the places in Libya themselves, whether they are damaged or not. So Karl von Habsburg and I decided that we had to do it ourselves. We were in Ras-Almergib, a site right next to Leptis Magna, where a radar and air defense station of the Gaddafi troops was destroyed, less than 15 meters away from a Roman fort that remained intact. The ancient site was on our list."