In this Book

buy this book Buy This Book in Print
  • The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons license. Unless otherwise noted, all images are reproduced with the permission of the rights holders acknowledged in captions or photo credits and are expressly excluded from the Creative Commons.
summary
A pathbreaking call to halt the intertwined crises of cultural heritage attacks and mass atrocities and mobilize international efforts to protect people and cultures.
 
Intentional destruction of cultural heritage has a long history. Contemporary examples include the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, mosques in Xinjiang, mausoleums in Timbuktu, and Greco-Roman remains in Syria. Cultural heritage destruction invariably accompanies assaults on civilians, making heritage attacks impossible to disentangle from the mass atrocities of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. Both seek to eliminate people and the heritage with which they identify.
 
Cultural Heritage and Mass Atrocities assembles essays by thirty-eight experts from the heritage, social science, humanitarian, legal, and military communities. Focusing on immovable cultural heritage vulnerable to attack, the volume's guiding framework is the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), a United Nations resolution adopted unanimously in 2005 to permit international intervention against crimes of war or genocide. Based on the three pillars of prevent, react, and rebuild, R2P offers today's policymakers a set of existing laws and international norms that can and—as this book argues—must be extended to the protection of cultural heritage. Contributions consider the global value of cultural heritage and document recent attacks on people and sites in China, Guatemala, Iraq, Mali, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. Comprehensive sections on vulnerable populations as well as the role of international law and the military offer readers critical insights and point toward research, policy, and action agendas to protect both people and cultural heritage. A concise abstract of each chapter is offered online in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish to facilitate robust, global dissemination of the strategies and tactics offered in this pathbreaking call to action.
 
The free online edition of this publication is available at getty.edu/publications/cultural-heritage-mass-atrocities. Also available are free PDF, EPUB, and Kindle/MOBI downloads of the book.

Table of Contents

Download EPUB Download Full EPUB
  1. Cover
  2. p. 1
  3. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Title Page
  2. p. 2
  3. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Copyright
  2. pp. 3-4
  3. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Contents
  2. pp. 5-8
  3. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Foreword
  2. Irina Bokova
  3. pp. 9-19
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Preface and Acknowledgments
  2. p. 20
  3. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. List of Abbreviations
  2. pp. 26-31
  3. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Introduction
  2. James Cuno and Thomas G. Weiss
  3. pp. 32-54
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Part 1 Cultural Heritage and Values
  2. p. 55
  3. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Introduction: Part 1
  2. James Cuno and Thomas G. Weiss
  3. pp. 56-60
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 1 Who Are We? Identity and Cultural Heritage
  2. Kwame Anthony Appiah
  3. pp. 61-85
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 2 Why Do We Value Cultural Heritage?
  2. Neil MacGregor
  3. pp. 86-96
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 3 Cultural Heritage under Attack: Learning from History
  2. Hermann Parzinger
  3. pp. 97-120
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 4 The Cultural Heritage of Late Antiquity
  2. Glen W. Bowersock
  3. pp. 121-129
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 5 The Written Heritage of the Muslim World
  2. Sabine Schmidtke
  3. pp. 130-162
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 6 Valuing the Legacy of Our Cultural Heritage
  2. Ismail Serageldin
  3. pp. 163-178
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Part 2 Cultural Heritage under Siege: Recent Cases
  2. p. 179
  3. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Introduction: Part 2
  2. James Cuno and Thomas G. Weiss
  3. pp. 180-186
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 7 Uyghur Heritage under China’s “Antireligious Extremism” Campaigns
  2. Rachel Harris
  3. pp. 187-209
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 8 When Peace Is Defeat, Reconstruction Is Damage: “Rebuilding” Heritage in Post-conflict Sri Lanka and Afghanistan
  2. Kavita Singh
  3. pp. 210-229
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 9 Performative Destruction: Da’esh (ISIS) Ideology and the War on Heritage in Iraq
  2. Gil J. Stein
  3. pp. 230-251
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 10 The Destruction of Aleppo: The Impact of the Syrian War on a World Heritage City
  2. Francesco Bandarin
  3. pp. 252-273
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 11 The Lost Heritage of Homs: From the Destruction of Monuments to the Destruction of Meaning
  2. Marwa al-Sabouni
  3. pp. 274-303
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 12 Reconstruction, Who Decides?
  2. Frederick Deknatel
  3. pp. 304-324
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 13 Yemen’s Manuscript Culture under Attack
  2. Sabine Schmidtke
  3. pp. 325-348
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 14 Cultural Heritage at Risk in Mali: The Destruction of Timbuktu’s Mausoleums of Saints
  2. Lazare Eloundou Assomo
  3. pp. 349-362
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 15 Indigenous Threatened Heritage in Guatemala
  2. Victor Montejo
  3. pp. 363-379
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Part 3 Cultural Heritage and Populations at Risk
  2. p. 380
  3. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Introduction: Part 3
  2. James Cuno and Thomas G. Weiss
  3. pp. 381-385
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 16 Cultural Cleansing and Mass Atrocities
  2. Simon Adams
  3. pp. 386-402
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 17 Choosing between Human Life and Cultural Heritage in War
  2. Hugo Slim
  3. pp. 403-413
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 18 Saving Stones and Saving Lives: A Humanitarian Perspective on Protecting Cultural Heritage in War
  2. Paul H. Wise
  3. pp. 414-428
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 19 Engaging Nonstate Armed Groups in the Protection of Cultural Heritage
  2. Jennifer M. Welsh
  3. pp. 429-451
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 20 After the Dust Settles: Transitional Justice and Identity in the Aftermath of Cultural Destruction
  2. Philippe Sands and Ashrutha Rai
  3. pp. 452-467
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Part 4 Cultural Heritage and International Law
  2. p. 468
  3. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Introduction: Part 4
  2. James Cuno and Thomas G. Weiss
  3. pp. 469-473
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 21 Protecting Cultural Heritage: The Ties between People and Places
  2. Patty Gerstenblith
  3. pp. 474-493
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 22 International Humanitarian Law and the Protection of Cultural Property
  2. Benjamin Charlier and Tural Mustafayev
  3. pp. 494-510
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 23 International Human Rights Law and Cultural Heritage
  2. Marc-André Renold and Alessandro Chechi
  3. pp. 511-527
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 24 Customs, General Principles, and the Intentional Destruction of Cultural Property
  2. Francesco Francioni
  3. pp. 528-548
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 25 Prosecuting Heritage Destruction
  2. Joseph Powderly
  3. pp. 549-568
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 26 Fighting Terrorist Attacks against World Heritage and Global Cultural Heritage Governance
  2. Sabine von Schorlemer
  3. pp. 569-587
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Part 5 Cultural Heritage and Military Perspectives
  2. p. 588
  3. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Introduction: Part 5
  2. James Cuno and Thomas G. Weiss
  3. pp. 589-593
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 27 Protecting Cultural Heritage on the Battlefield: The Hard Case of Religion
  2. Ron E. Hassner
  3. pp. 594-610
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 28 From Kyoto to Baghdad to Tehran: Leadership, Law, and the Protection of Cultural Heritage
  2. Scott D. Sagan
  3. pp. 611-629
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 29 Practicing the Art of War While Protecting Cultural Heritage: A Military Perspective
  2. Ruth Margolies Beitler and Dexter W. Dugan
  3. pp. 630-648
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 30 Peace Operations and the Protection of Cultural Heritage
  2. Richard Gowan
  3. pp. 649-663
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 31 Protecting Cultural Property in Armed Conflict: The Necessity for Dialogue and Action Integrating the Heritage, Military, and Humanitarian Sectors
  2. Peter G. Stone
  3. pp. 664-688
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. 32 When Peace Breaks Out: The Peril and Promise of “Afterwar”
  2. Hugh Eakin
  3. pp. 689-707
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Conclusion: Toward Research, Policy, and Action Agendas
  2. James Cuno and Thomas G. Weiss
  3. pp. 708-725
  4. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Suggested Readings
  2. pp. 726-743
  3. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Contributors
  2. pp. 744-755
  3. open access
    • HTML icon View
  1. Index
  2. pp. 756-816
  3. open access
    • HTML icon View
Back To Top