Kyrgyzstan will accede to the Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, signed on May 14, 1954 in The Hague. The bill was approved by the Committee on Social Policy of the Parliament.
«There are more than 1,500 immovable monuments of history, archeology, architecture and urban planning, monumental art, as well as 68 state museums that contain valuable exhibits currently in the Kyrgyz Republic,» the background statement to the document says.
Deputy Minister of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy Ainura Askarova found it difficult to answer deputy Mederbek Aliyev’s question about how joining the protocol would help protect them in the event of war or what responsibility the bill provides for the destruction of cultural property.
The first Protocol for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict appeared in 1954 and was ratified by 108 countries. The second was adopted in 1999 and came into force in 2004. But only 72 states ratified it.
The document itself states that countries undertake to prevent the export of cultural property from the territories they occupy. Countries also undertake to take under protection those cultural values that are imported there directly or indirectly from any occupied territory. This will happen either automatically at the time of import, or, if this has not been done, at the request of the authorities of the occupied territory, and upon the cessation of hostilities, return the cultural property.
