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International Committee of Blue Shield Calls on Conflicting Parties

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  • International Committee of Blue Shield Calls on Conflicting Parties

    INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF BLUE SHIELD CALLS ON CONFLICTING PARTIES
    IN MIDDLE EAST TO BE RESPECTFUL OF CULTURAL PROPERTY

    Armenpress

    YEREVAN, AUGUST 1, ARMENPRESS: ICOMOS International Secretariat
    representative informed Armenpress that the International Committee
    of the Blue Shield (ICBS) has released a statement on threatened
    cultural heritage in the Middle East conflict.

    The statement particularly says "The International Committee of
    the Blue Shield (ICBS) deplores the unacceptable loss of human
    lives, the considerable suffering, the rapid displacement of entire
    communities, and the destruction that are currently taking place in
    areas administered by Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority. It
    is also extremely concerned by the threat that the present conflict
    could escalate still further."

    In the statement the committee calls on all parties to be respectful of
    the cultural property in the region as cultural property is priceless
    and irreplaceable, of vital importance not only to each community,
    but also to humanity.

    "It is universally recognized that this region has an extremely rich
    cultural heritage, which has had a profound and lasting influence on
    peoples throughout the world. This is demonstrated by the significant
    number of sites in both Israel and Lebanon inscribed on the UNESCO
    World Heritage list. The total or partial loss of cultural properties
    in the area would seriously impoverish the collective memory of
    mankind.

    It would be a great tragedy if this is allowed to happen. ICBS
    therefore calls on all parties to take the greatest possible care
    to protect the rich cultural heritage of the region and to take the
    necessary preventive measures to ensure that it is not damaged in
    any way during the present conflict," the statement says.

    In the statement the ICBS also says that being keenly aware that there
    are other compelling concerns at times of armed conflict, not least
    the loss of human life, it wishes to stress that international law
    prohibits the use of cultural property for military purposes or to
    shield military objectives and urges all parties concerned to respect
    the provisions of The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural
    Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols, as
    well as the 1972 World Heritage Convention, which calls on countries
    'not to take any deliberate measures which might damage directly or
    indirectly the cultural and natural heritage' in the territory of
    other countries that are party to this Convention. Israel and Lebanon
    have ratified both of these Conventions.

    ICBS was founded in 1996 'to work to protect the world's cultural
    heritage threatened by wars and natural disasters'.
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