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The 1954 Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols of 1954 and 1999
The draft Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill currently under consultation will enact the Hague Convention in the UK.
The Culture Committee welcomes the Draft Bill.
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Background
The Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (the Hague Convention) was signed at The Hague on 14 May 1954. The Convention provides for a system of general and special protection of cultural property in situations of international and non-international armed conflict. Cultural property for this purpose is defined as "movable and immovable property of great importance to the cultural heritage of every people". The Convention is supplemented by two Protocols – the first adopted at the same time as the Convention, in 1954 (the First Protocol) and the second adopted in 1999 (the Second Protocol).
To download the Convention and the two Protocols.
The UK Government publicly announced its intention to ratify the 1954 Hague Convention and accede to both its Protocols on 14 May 2004, the 50th anniversary of the Convention.
The UK decided not to ratify the Convention when it was first drafted because, along with a number of other countries, it considered that it did not provide an effective regime for the protection of cultural property.
 In 1991, the Netherlands Government and UNESCO conducted a review of the working of the Convention and the Protocol. This resulted in the adoption of the Second Protocol in 1999, at a Diplomatic Conference in The Hague. The UK welcomed the work on this Second Protocol and was actively engaged in its negotiation with the objective of helping to produce a Second Protocol that would enable the UK to ratify the Convention.
DCMS is the lead department in taking this forward, but there is support for it throughout Whitehall.
Download: Hague Convention tool kit
DCMS Consultations
DCMS launched a consultation document 6 September 2005, which asked important questions on the most suitable way for the UK to meet its obligations under the Hague Convention. Read the Consultation document.
The Culture Committee of the UK National Commission and a number of members of the Committee responded to the consultation.
Responses to the consultation were published in October 2006.
Draft Cultural Property (armed conflicts) Bill
The Bill will allow the UK to ratify the Hague Convention, and was published for pre-legislative scrutiny in January 2008.
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