Description
Following prosecutions for attacks on cultural property by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, and its own conviction of a Malian operative in September 2016, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a Policy on Cultural Heritage in June 2021 to (a) develop the ICC’s role in investigating and prosecuting crimes against or affecting cultural heritage; (b) deter future such crimes; and (c) promote awareness of the importance of cultural heritage. This paper observes that crimes against cultural heritage are not fully articulated in the Rome Statute. While the provision on war crimes expressly includes attacks on and unlawful seizure of cultural property, the articles on crimes against humanity and genocide require interpretive maneuvering. By situating crimes against cultural heritage alongside crimes perpetrated against the human body, and by providing for accountability for what amount to attacks on cultural diversity, the Policy’s overt humanization of heritage can be read not only in the vein of strengthening cultural rights but as implying that prohibition of such acts may advance to jus cogens status. In this regard, the policy becomes a site of contestation regarding the long-term implications of designating a site, monument, or structure as heritage.
