The Destruction of the Historical and Artistic Heritage as Cultural Genocide in International Law

Abstract

The destruction of the historical and artistic heritage of a population represents one of the possible ways of annihilating the cultural identity and history of that population. Starting from the concept of collective cultural identity and conducting a comparative legal analysis of specific cases, this thesis proposes to analyze and explain the modus operandi of agents, systematically replicated in various war and conflict scenarios as well as where genocides are perpetrated, which aims to deprive the people to whom that cultural heritage belongs of their collective identity and memory. After framing the concept of cultural heritage within international law, examining the role of UNESCO in the protection of cultural heritage and providing an overview of the role that the destruction of cultural heritage, as an international crime, plays within international criminal law, the concept of cultural genocide is introduced. Following this, an in-depth investigation of the Middle Eastern scenario shows how emblematic cases of destruction such as Mosul, Hatra, but also Palmyra, and again, Afghanistan, constitute both an attempt to erase the identity of a people and destroy the heritage of humanity as a whole. The focus of the paper will be the analysis of the Al Mahdi case as case-law and reason for debate on the future possibility of placing alongside crimes against the individual also crimes against cultural heritage, where its intentional and deliberate destruction is aimed at erasing the identity of a people.