Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-07-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of whether there have been contraventions of the (a) 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and (b) 1972 World Heritage Convention during the conflict in Syria.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We have no diplomatic presence in Syria and so are unable to provide an accurate assessment of the damage to cultural property ourselves.

The Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill introduced to Parliament in May 2016 will enable the UK to ratify the 1954 Hague Convention for the protection of cultural property in the event of Armed Conflict. We are also working with Counter-Daesh Coalition partners to tackle the illicit trade in antiquities through UN and EU sanctions.

The 1972 World Heritage Convention is policed by the World Heritage Committee, supported by UNESCO. At present all six World Heritage Sites (ancient cities of Aleppo, Bosra, Damascus & N Syria, Crac des Chevaliers & Qal’at Salah El-Din, site of Palmyra), in Syria have been placed on the "World Heritage in Danger" list. The continuing concern of the World Heritage Committee was expressed at its annual meeting held in July, but its conclusions are yet to be published.

Earlier this year the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in partnership with the British Council launched a Cultural Protection Fund, which will allocate £30 million to projects which will foster, safeguard and protect cultural heritage in global conflict zones.