Cultural treasures are being destroyed by war, and people want justice

August was a brutal month for Ukraine, as Russian aerial attacks increased significantly, launching thousands of drones. Kyiv and the southern cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa bore the brunt of the bombardment. Six Unesco-protected sites, including the salmon-pink 19th Century Alexandru Sturdza House, were reported damaged in Odesa. This has reignited the question of why holding perpetrators accountable for the destruction of culturally significant buildings and objects remains such a challenge.

According to Ukraine's Ministry of Culture, 148 cultural heritage sites were recorded as damaged or destroyed in the last month alone. Despite lodging complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Russia, no indictments have been issued. The legal framework, while strong on paper, has repeatedly fallen short in practice. No state actor has ever been tried for this offence, primarily due to the lack of jurisdiction and political will.

The obstacles to accountability lie in jurisdiction and political will. Satellite imagery, remote sensing, and monitoring teams exist, yet the political will to act is lacking. Looking at the ongoing conflicts worldwide, the pressing question arises: is effective action possible to stop the damage or ensure accountability when it occurs? The conflict in Ukraine is just one of many recent wars that have highlighted the disastrous impact of conflict on cultural heritage.

The destruction of cultural sites leaves communities bereft of their past. For instance, the Great Omari Mosque in Gaza, an emblem of the city's identity, was nearly destroyed by an Israeli strike in 2023. The Israeli military claimed the strike was aimed at Hamas, yet the loss has been deeply felt by local artisan Bijan Rouhani, who sells crafts and antiquities in Gaza. "When your past is destroyed, you have no present," he laments.

Similar sentiments reverberate through history across countries ravaged by war, such as Sudan, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran. In Iran, over 100 sites were reported damaged during the US and Israeli aerial war in February, including the Unesco-listed Golestan Palace in Tehran and Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan. In Sudan, the Meroe Pyramids, an ancient wonder of the world, are at risk due to the ongoing civil war.

Unesco warns that the fighting has halted preservation work, leaving the structures vulnerable to erosion from sand and vegetation.

The Hague Convention of 1954 was the first international treaty dedicated to protecting cultural heritage during armed conflict. It applies to monuments, architecture, works of art, and books, requiring states to safeguard and respect cultural property. Since then, several additional moves have been made to strengthen protective measures.

The Second Protocol of 1999 stipulated that sites deemed of immense cultural significance should not be made military targets, unless there is no alternative to ending their use in such a manner. The International Criminal Court's remit includes bringing accountability for deliberate attacks on buildings of religious, artistic, and educational value during wartime.

However, only one case has been successfully brought at the ICC – Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, a jihadist militant leader in Mali, sentenced to nine years in prison for destroying mausoleums and a mosque in Timbuktu.

Despite the Hague Convention's requirements, such as building protection into military rules and respecting cultural property abroad, the scale of damage in recent conflicts suggests that these obligations are not taken seriously. In conflicts like Ukraine, Iran, and Gaza, where schools and hospitals are seen as permissible military targets, how likely is it that museums or ancient stone structures will be spared?

The lack of priority given to heritage by most governments, unless it becomes useful for propaganda, further complicates the issue. With combatants targeting even museums and piles of ancient stones, the likelihood of sparing such sites appears slim. Is it realistic to expect that the Hague Convention's obligations will be taken seriously in the face of ongoing devastation in conflicts like Ukraine, Iran, and Gaza?