The International Council on Archives (ICA)and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), which have established the International Committee of the Blue Shield together with the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), will participate in a major diplomatic conference in The Hague, Netherlands (15-26 March 1999) which will adopt new provisions for the protection of cultural heritage in the event of armed conflict, destined to improve the safeguards provided by the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict adopted in The Hague in 1954. The Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of a Second Protocol Supplementing the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict will offer the international community an opportunity to take measures to counter the alarming new tide of damage and loss related to armed conflicts since 1990. Recent, sometimes intentional, destruction of heritage in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia and Somalia, among other places, has led to calls to improve that protection. Such destruction represents an inestimable loss to the common heritage of humanity and to the cultural development and identity of local communities. UNESCO, together with some other intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, has conducted a review of the 1954 Convention and found several aspects in which it could be strengthened. More precise provisions could, for instance, be brought to the concept of "military necessity" and better heritage protection in situations of civil and domestic conflicts. There is also a significant demand for the adoption of an improved system of sanctions to punish perpetrators of crimes affecting cultural heritage and for the creation of a body to supervise the implementation of the Convention. Since 1993, five expert meetings and two meetings of States party to the Convention have considered means of improving the Convention. Those meetings have resulted in the elaboration of a Draft Second Protocol conceived to strengthen the scope of the Hague Convention. The Diplomatic Conference in The Hague is being organised at the invitation of the Netherlands government. All UNESCO Member States, UN Member States which are not members of UNESCO and a number of intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, such as the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, have been invited. The International Council of Museums (ICOM), the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the International Council on Archives (ICA) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), which have established the International Committee of the Blue Shield as a co-ordinating body, provide the experts who try to protect cultural heritage under threat. It is hoped that the Conference will mark a new step in the development of international humanitarian law, thus fulfilling the aims of the UN Decade of International Law which finishes this year. Related Links UNESCO Press release of 3 March 1999 Official Website of the Conference Legal protection of cultural heritage (Website of UNESCO's Culture Sector) UNESCO's World Heritage Centre UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme UNESCO's Emergency programme for the safeguarding of archives in the event of armed conflicts http://www.unesco.org/webworld/archives/sro_citra/index.html        Contact: Axel Plathe, UNESCO, Information and Informatics Division