Our Responsibility to Protect Cultural Heritage in Conflict Zones

Our Responsibility to Protect Cultural Heritage in Conflict Zones

Getty.edu, blog, 1.9.18

In December 2016, with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the J. Paul Getty Trust convened a meeting at the British Academy, London, to discuss an international framework for the protection of cultural heritage in zones of armed conflict. All of these developments inspired the launch of a new initiative: The J. Paul Getty Trust Occasional Papers in Cultural Heritage Policy. The first paper, "Cultural Cleansing and Mass Atrocities," addresses the threats to cultural heritage in armed conflict zones and the connection between the destruction of cultural heritage, cultural cleansing, and mass atrocities. It was written by Thomas G. Weiss, Presidential Professor of Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center, and Nina Connelly, research associate at the Ralph Bunche Institute of the CUNY Graduate Center and a Ph.D. candidate at the Graduate Center.