Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill [HL]

Baroness Young of Hornsey Excerpts

Monday 6th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Young of Hornsey (CB)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as a commissioner with Historic England, which, among other responsibilities, is the Government’s adviser on international conventions, regulations and directives, and the UK’s 29 UNESCO world heritage sites. To ensure effective collaboration across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, we work closely with historic environment expert bodies in each country. In addition, Historic England works with the UN National Commission for UNESCO, World Heritage UK and the UK national committee of the International Commission on Monuments and Sites to ensure effective joint working on international heritage issues.

Like other noble Lords, I have watched with dismay as monuments, statues, historic buildings and cultural artefacts have been destroyed deliberately or have been the subject of collateral damage. Historic England welcomes this strong statement about the UK’s commitment to protecting cultural property during armed conflict, as do I, although—like other noble Lords—I wish we had signed up to the convention much sooner. There are three areas in particular to which I would like to draw the attention of the House. First, as other noble Lords have mentioned, intentional damage to cultural property will, under the Bill, carry a penalty of up to 30 years’ imprisonment, which is to be welcomed. Currently, the deliberate destruction or demolition of a listed building or scheduled ancient monument is regarded as a criminal offence in England and carries a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment and an unlimited fine. The changes embodied in the Bill recognise the value of cultural property that is of international significance to communities, be they local, national, or international, and their identities.

The bold measure of establishing a £30 million cultural protection fund, which will help create opportunities for economic and social development through building capacity to foster, safeguard and promote cultural heritage in conflict-affected regions overseas, provides the necessary support. The fund is being managed by the British Council in partnership with DCMS. Initially, it will be focused on UK organisations working in partnership with bodies in the Middle East and North Africa region, specifically Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen.

The enshrining in law of procedures relating to cultural protection that are already practised by the Armed Forces is another area of legislation to be welcomed. It is also most encouraging, as the noble Baroness, Lady Andrews, mentioned, that the Secretary of State for Defence is committed to the establishment of a military cultural property protection unit within the Armed Forces. This is already at an advanced stage of preparation and, as stated by the Secretary of State for Defence in April this year, is working closely with DCMS. The combination of that unit from the Ministry of Defence with DCMS and the FCO’s Stabilisation Unit has the potential to be a formidable force that will develop effective plans to contribute towards the protection of historically significant cultural monuments.

I move on to the categories of cultural property. Historic England has worked with sister agencies in the home countries, and with the DCMS, in identifying the categories of UK cultural assets to be protected under the Hague convention. Cultural property is defined in Article 1 of the convention and two levels of protection are afforded. The first is enhanced protection, which allows for a handful of sites to be selected that represent,

“cultural heritage of the greatest importance for humanity”.

The main focus of concern in the DCMS Select Committee recommendations in 2008 was the resource implications of developing an enhanced list. However, only five countries—Azerbaijan, Belgium, Cyprus, Italy and Lithuania—have identified a combined total of 10 sites to be listed as cultural property under the enhanced protection category, and all are world heritage properties.

The second level is general protection. While there is no legal imperative to produce a national list, further to the DCMS Select Committee recommendations in 2008 the categories identified to be covered under general protection are: listed buildings of grade 1 status, or category A in Scotland and Northern Ireland; listed historic parks and gardens of grade 1 status in England; the collections of those museums and galleries that are directly sponsored or funded by government; and, finally, the museums, galleries and universities in England with designated collections and, in Scotland, with important collections.

These categories have raised concern among some heritage organisations, as scheduled ancient monuments —archaeology—are not included in the proposed list because they are not graded in the same way as listed buildings. However, with almost 20,000 recorded scheduled ancient monuments, your Lordships can see why their inclusion as a category is deemed unfeasible. It could be argued that archaeology may not be adequately recognised under the convention. However, some archaeology will be represented since 12% of grade 1 listed buildings in England are also scheduled ancient monuments.

Most forms of categorisation are prone to at least mild confusion and anomalies, and this area would appear to require further consideration, as was suggested by the noble Lord, Lord Foster of Bath. Will the Minister commit to convening an expert group to discuss and perhaps refine these categories further? She may wish to wait to see how the current categories work in practice. However, I hope she can see the benefits of assembling such a group to hone this area of work before implementation.

Like other noble Lords, I very much welcome the Bill, as I have already said, particularly the potential to prosecute those who loot cultural treasures from other countries and attempt to gain financial benefit from stolen goods. The Minister has said that this legislation will not operate retrospectively, thus calming the nerves of those British institutions that have inherited stolen goods in their collections. I was most interested to hear the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Mobarik, on historical acts of stealing and looting. I simply ask noble Lords and, indeed, the institutions concerned to think about the significance we are attaching to these contemporary crimes of cultural destruction when peoples from across the world make the case for repatriation of cultural objects.

It is crucial to state that history and heritage are really important and not frivolous or insignificant when lives are at stake in conflict situations. The UN Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, published less than a decade after the end of World War II, recognises that,

“damage to cultural property belonging to any people whatsoever means damage to the cultural heritage of all mankind, since each people makes its contribution to the culture of the world”,

and that,

“the preservation of the cultural heritage is of great importance for all peoples of the world and that it is important that this heritage should receive international protection”.

In the efforts to rebuild lives scarred and shattered by conflict, the narratives of the past embodied in monuments, sites and artefacts, whatever form they might take, constitute a record of where those communities have come from—and where all of us have come from—and thus where they, and we, might go.

We know from history that the destruction of heritage is the attempt to destroy the identity and morale of a people. We must make a real effort to ensure that the full breadth of human histories is not appropriated and destroyed because of the ideological positions of the combatants. The Bill will enable us to go at least part of the way and to act decisively to protect cultural and historic artefacts at the moment when arguably they are most needed.