Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed ConflictDone at the Hague, 14 May 1954
Entered in force: 7 August 1956
Article 2. Protection of cultural property
For the purposes of the present Convention, the protection of cultural property shall comprise the safeguarding of and respect for such property. The Hague ConventionFocus on Iraq: Spoils of War Volume 56 Number 4, July/August 2003
by Neil Brodie
The plundering of Iraq's cultural institutions demonstrates yet again how warfare fuels the global trade in looted antiquities.In the days following the sack of Baghdad's museums, the first question asked was: Why had coalition war planners and military commanders not done more to stop it from happening? Looking to the events of April 2003, and beyond, another and more fundamental question is: Why has no concerted international action been taken to block the trade and sale of material looted from archaeological sites and cultural institutions during wartime? The simple answer seems to be that the political will just hasn't been there.
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If the coalition partners had acceded to the Hague Convention before the invasion of Iraq, then those responsible for the failure to protect the National Museum would have taken more care to secure it.
Archaeology Magazine