International Documents for Heritage Protection
Unit 4: International Documents for the Protection of Heritage
Interest in cultural heritage protection has developed especially in the 20th century, linked to the creation of international organizations: League of Nations, UNESCO, ICOM, ICOMOS, Council of Europe, etc. In this century, the state intervenes and decides to provide cultural services for society. Expert meetings, conferences, and seminars are reflected in documents that have laid the foundation for the protection of heritage internationally.
Letter from Athens: 1931 – League of Nations
1. Society of the United Nations
2. 2nd International Museums Office
3. 3rd Conference in Athens 1931
4. 4th Carta
Its context is the restoration in Greece, the cradle of Western civilization, responding to a second period of interest in the conservation of monuments and their restoration.
Principles:
– Collaboration among nations in the conservation of monuments
– Collective rights to private property
– Principles of Restoration (concern: authenticity of the monuments):
– Minimum action: Preferred: conservation, regular maintenance.
– Restoration should be exceptional – Anastylosis (restoration of original elements found).
– Respect for history: Respect each of the phases and styles present in monuments.
– Modern notoriety: Need for in situ conservation of monumental sculpture.
– Need for collaboration between architects and conservators with expertise in physics, chemistry, and the environment.
– The need to protect (remove advertising, facilities, etc.).
– Use of monuments.
– Educational campaigns on respect for sights.
– Diffusion of interventions and methods (publications).
– Transcendence: Influence on national legislation (e.g., Spain, 1933).
Hague Convention 1954
– It was the 1st international multilateral treaty focused exclusively on the protection of cultural heritage in case of armed conflict (2nd protocol 1999).
Commitments of States (First and Second Protocol):
– In times of peace: Prepare for the safeguarding of cultural property situated within its own territory, including:
– Inventory and planning emergency measures for protection against fire or structural collapse.
– Preparation for the removal of movable cultural property.
– Enrollment in the International Register of Cultural Property under Special Protection.
– Specialized personnel within the armed forces to protect cultural property in the vicinity of military objectives and avoid locating military objectives near cultural sites.
– Adopt all necessary measures under its criminal justice system to prosecute and impose sanctions.
– In times of war: Respect cultural property situated within its own territory and that of the other High Contracting Parties to the Convention, refrain from any act of hostility against them, and:
– Refrain from any act of reprisal against cultural property.
– Prohibit, prevent, and stop any form of theft, pillage, or misappropriation of cultural property, and any acts of vandalism directed against it.
– At the end of hostilities: Return exported cultural property to the competent authorities of the previously occupied territory.
Prohibit the retention of cultural property.
Yugoslavia’s cultural heritage was deliberately targeted during the war, with the intention to humiliate rival ethnic groups and deprive them of traces of their heritage, as seen in the National Library of Sarajevo and Dubrovnik.
– In 1999, a second