https://www.law.upenn.edu/newsevents/calendar.php#event_id/52835/view/event
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13637&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/INTRO/400
and see:
http://www.apollo-magazine.com/is-the-destruction-of-cultural-property-a-war-crime/
In March 2001, six months before the attacks of 9/11, the Taliban provoked international outrage when it destroyed two Ancient statues of the Buddha carved into a hillside in the Bamiyan valley in Afghanistan. Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban’s leader at time, considered the statues idolatrous, and the effort to destroy them was part of a broader effort to purge the nation of pre-Islamic cultural sites and artifacts. This episode provides a vivid illustration of the degree to which cultural property has become a target in modern warfare. Achieving a better understanding of the damage inflicted by such attacks and strengthening efforts to prevent them will be the aim of our present conference.
