70 years after the Hague Convention

70 years since the Hague Convention: the PROCULTHER-NET perspective

On 2 July 2024, in the framework of the Hague Convention celebrations, Giovanni De Siervo, PROCULTHER-NET Director, attended the network meeting entitled “Milestones & ways to go for cultural heritage protection 70 years since the Hague Convention”. The symposium was held at the Permanent Representation of Austria to the EU in Brussels and was jointly organized by the German Society for Cultural Property Protection e.V., the Swiss Society for Cultural Property Protection, Blue Shield Austria, Blue Shield Germany & the Fraunhofer Society, under the patronage of the Austrian Embassy to Belgium and supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum. 

Looking back at the Convention’s success and new challenges for the future, this event was divided in two parts: the first was a network meeting and symposium with a panel discussion that gathered experts from the European cultural heritage sector, multilateral and humanitarian policies, civil-protection, disaster risk reduction and the armed forces, to explore the interdisciplinary strategies and initiatives for further enhancing the protection of cultural heritage in armed conflicts and catastrophes and seek for new approaches to foster cultural resilience. After the welcoming words by Waltraud Strommer, Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum Brussels, the audience was introduced to the meeting by representatives from the Organising Committee: Nelly Cauliez, for the Swiss Society for Cultural Property Protection, Anna Puhr, from Blue Shield Austria, and Constanze Fuhrmann from Blue Shield Germany. The event then delved into the core of the matter, with an intervention by the International alliance for the protection of cultural heritage in conflict areas (ALIPH) that triggered the discussion on the importance of resilience and its inclusion in the operational and strategic activities at institutional level. Afterwards, Hans-Ulrich Goessl, Head of Unit Civil Protection Policy at the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations DG ECHO and Giovanni De Siervo, PROCULTHER-NET Project Director provided inputs for exchanging ideas on the effective strategy needed to strengthen long-term resilience of cultural heritage. Finally, Karl Habsburg-Lothringen, President of Blue Shield Austria, offered the last impulse for discussion with the ratio behind the establishment of Blue Shield in Europe and the possible way forward. 

The last part of the symposium focused on the next steps for a stronger legal integration and operational implementation of the Hague Convention into EU policies. 

The second part of the event saw the participation of high-level representatives to the European Union from Austria, UNESCO, from the two EU Member States that have the current and next semester of Presidency of the Council of UE (Belgium and Hungary) and from the academic sector that will set the scene for a round-table discussion involving experts from universities, non-governmental organisations, and from European bodies contributing to the cultural heritage safeguard, such as the European External Action Service (EEAS).

The outcomes of these exchanges will provide recommendations to the newly elected EU Parliament for enhancing resilience as a key aspect of cultural heritage.

PROCULTHER-NET joined the celebrations for the 70^th anniversary of the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict since May 2024. Indeed, PROCULTHER tools have been shared in the Networking Agora organised in parallel to the International Conference “Cultural Heritage and Peace: Building on the 70 years since UNESCO’s Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict”. In The Hague, PROCULTHER-NET met experts from national and international institutions, agencies, ministries and non-governmental organisations. This space hosted a booth in the Good Practice zone where project representatives shared the knowledge and tools developed within PROCULTHER (2019-2021) and PROCULTHER-NET (2022-2023) and explained the expected results from the actions foreseen within the current initiative PROCULTHER-NET 2 (2024-2025). In addition to the experts, already familiar with the thematic community dedicated to cultural heritage at risk promoted by the project, new stakeholders approached the stand and received a copy of the main technical documents produced by PROCULTHER and PROCULTHER-NET: e.g., the “Key Elements of a European Methodology to Address the Protection of Cultural Heritage during Emergencies” and the Technical Bulletins issued in March 2023 and in June 2023.