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Azerbaijan requests UNESCO to give enhanced protection status to two World Heritage sites in event of armed conflict

16 December 2011 09:21 (UTC +04:00)

The status had been requested for the Walled City of Baku (Icherisheher) with the Shirvanshahâ€™s Palace and Maiden Tower, and Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape. The Committee referred these requests back to the States Parties for complementary information.
KernavÄ— Archaeological Site (Cultural Reserve of KernavÄ—) World Heritage site in Lithuania has been given "enhanced protection" status by the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, which held its sixth meeting at UNESCO Headquarters from 14 to 16 December.
"Enhanced protection" is one of the features of the 1999 Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. The granting of such protection by the Committee to sites in countries that are party to the Second Protocol can be made under three conditions: that the site be of the greatest importance to humanity; that it be protected by adequate domestic legal and administrative measures recognizing its exceptional cultural and historic value and ensuring the highest level of protection; and that it not be used for military purposes or to shield military sites with a declaration made by the State Party which has control over the cultural property, confirming that it will not be so used.