16 December 2024

Cultural Destruction as a War Crime: Lebanon’s Call for Accountability

This year, Synergy for Justice will be donating all end-of-year donations to organisations supporting survivors of violence in Gaza and Lebanon. These include the Center for Women’s Legal Research Counselling and Protection (CWLRCP) in Gaza and Basmeh & Zeitooneh in Lebanon, working tirelessly to support those affected by displacement and violence. Join us in responding together by contributing to our campaign.

In this blog post, Morgane Landel, Synergy for Justice Legal Expert Contributor, discusses the destruction of cultural property and heritage sites in Lebanon and explains the potential avenues for accountability in the future.

“Not another ruin.” I live in Türkiye with my family, and I hear this regularly from my kids. To be fair, there are a lot of ruins in Türkiye. I have tried to explain to my kids how lucky they are to walk around these ruins. This is usually met by a blank stare and a question about lunch.

To the South of Türkiye, thousand-year-old ruins, ottoman souks, castles, mosques, churches, museums, and artefacts are under threat in Lebanon. Some sites have been directly hit by Israeli airstrikes, others are close to bombs that have fallen and have been damaged by shockwaves and smoke. Some are part of the UNESCO World Heritage, but not all. There are reports of museums having to put away their collections to avoid breakage when bombs fall nearby. Organisations are doing their best to protect this cultural property, but in the face of lack of state support and incessant bombardments, they face an uphill struggle. With the ceasefire in place, I hope this destruction will stop, and we can move towards accountability for the war crimes committed in relation to this cultural heritage.

To be sure, when considering that more than 3,900 people have died, over 16,000 have been injured, and 899,000 displaced, the destruction of historical and religious sites may seem less important than the loss of life. But the destruction of cultural property also has a human impact. When cultural sites are destroyed, it prevents us from accessing our shared history.

Following the attacks near Baalbek on 30 October 2024, Lebanon requested an extraordinary session of the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. On 18 November 2024, the UNESCO Committee granted provisional enhanced protection to 34 sites in Lebanon and “high-level immunity from military attacks.” Parties should not target these sites or use them or their immediate vicinity to support military actions.

What this means in practice remains to be seen. The 34 sites “will receive technical and financial assistance from UNESCO to reinforce their legal protections, improve risk anticipation and management measures, and provide further training for site managers in this area.”  It’s hard to see how technical assistance might have helped ancient archeological sites like Baalbek or Tyre when they were bombed. What it might do is provide funds to transfer artefacts currently in museums and put them in a safer zone. This will require substantial additional funds and political support from the government of Lebanon.

This enhanced protection may also provide a sign to the international community and actors in this war that these sites matter. Globally, there are only 27 sites on the permanent protection list and 26 on the provisional enhanced list.

This may also provide an avenue for accountability in the future. Under the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and its second optional protocol, attacking property or using property in support of military action that is protected under enhanced status is a crime. States have an obligation to prosecute perpetrators.

In addition, the statute of the International Criminal Court recognizes the destruction of cultural property as a war crime. In fact, the statute specifically singles out certain types of buildings, including “buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments” (article 8(b)(ix). Singling out these sites gives them added importance as they would be considered civilian infrastructure in any event. The ICC prosecutor adopted a policy on prosecuting these crimes in 2021, and it is hoped that this may move investigations and prosecutions forward.

So, might there be accountability for these crimes? I hope so, but there have been few of these cases at the international tribunals and courts. The International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia convicted Miograd Jokic of a war crime for the attack on the UNESCO World Heritage site of the old town of Dubrovnik. In 2016, the ICC convicted Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi of the war crime for the destruction of mausoleums in Timbuktu, following an admission of guilt by the defendant. These are positive developments. However, these prosecutions are few and far between and arose from different sets of facts. For example, the prosecution at the ICC followed an admission of guilt by the defendant with a clear set of orders to destroy cultural property. The destruction was then carried out systematically.

In the case of Lebanon, prosecutions will be more challenging. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah are likely to cooperate with international investigations. Both refuse to accept any form of international accountability for crimes committed and are united in their refusal to cooperate with international accountability mechanisms. Evidence of these crimes may be more challenging to obtain where a site has only been partially destroyed or where the damage is not visible. How would any court be able to be sure that damage was caused by a bomb that landed 500 meters from a site or by natural degradation over time? Organisations are starting to document these crimes, which will help in any future prosecution.

With the recent ceasefire, Lebanese are starting to return home. The extent of the damage will become more apparent. And so, I hope that UNESCO’s recent designation of these sites and the ceasefire will move the people of Lebanon closer to achieving accountability for these crimes. And that in the near future, I will look up to the temple of Jupiter in Baalbek and hear, “I’m bored, can we go to the beach?”

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