The Protection of Cultural Property in the Case of Armed Conflict: The State of Current and Future Developments in Military Doctrine

The legal context applicable to the protection of cultural property in the case of armed conflict comprises the 1954 Hague Convention and its Protocols as well as the customary law and broader legal framework offered by the 1949 Geneva Conventions and its Protocols. After reviewing these, this chapter aims to explore the main challenges that states face in implementing dispositions related to the protection of cultural property during armed conflicts. Although the 1954 Hague Convention and its Protocols introduced two other levels of protection in addition to the one accorded to all cultural properties—special and enhanced—and three different ways to mark cultural properties, only a few of them are marked. As the basic rule contained in Article 25 of the 1954 Hague Convention to disseminate the text of the treaty as widely as possible and make its principles known to the whole population has been missed, civilians do not always know that cultural property is protected according to international humanitarian law. The article also addresses the training of armed forces in respecting these rules, as well as which new challenges and legal perspectives can be implemented in military manuals. Education and training of the armed forces are essential to ensure the protection of cultural property in armed conflicts and in the stabilisation and postreconstruction phases.