Cultural heritage protection in Switzerland

When the UN was founded in 1945, the UNESCO was established as one of the 17 special agencies of the United Nations dealing with questions relating to education, science and culture.

Thus, UNESCO also took the lead when in 1954 the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (HAC) was consolidated by international law.

1 of the Hague Convention of 14 May 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (HAC), cultural property is defined as follows: such as monuments of architecture, art or history, whether religious or secular; archaeological sites; groups of buildings which, as a whole, are of historical or artistic interest; works of art; manuscripts, books and other objects of artistic, historical or archaeological interest; as well as scientific collections and important collections of books or archives or of reproductions of the property defined above such as museums, large libraries and depositories of archives, and refuges intended to shelter, in the event of armed conflicts, the movable cultural property defined above.

Its main tasks include the support and promotion of the cantons in carrying out the prescribed measures, the issue of directives and guidelines for specialist training, training of top PCP cadre within the context of civil defence, the funding of non-constructional measures to safeguard cultural assets of national or regional importance and the establishment and consolidation of contacts with domestic and foreign partner organisations.

Delegates from the departments of the federal administration, cantonal offices (monument conservation and archaeology) and cultural institutions (archives, museums and libraries) are members of this extra-parliamentary committee.

As specialist agencies, the historic monuments sections bring in the expertise for dealing with objects, while the civil defence organisation provides the human resources for local and regional operations.

Constant threats are primarily theft, vandalism, air pollution, infestation by pests or fungus, deterioration due to aging, ignorance or indifference.

They affected cultural property in various parts of Switzerland; for example at the Collections Centre of the Museum of Transport in Lucerne or in the Benedictine convent of St. Andreas in Sarnen.

In recent military conflicts – for example during the Balkan wars – a greater number of campaigns were carried out to deliberately destroy cultural assets, which promoted the birth of the Second Protocol.

In Switzerland, which was largely spared armed conflicts in its younger history, current protection of cultural property focuses primarily on measures against technological dangers, natural events and vandalism.

4 of the Federal Act on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, Disasters and Emergencies requires the cantons to prepare measures to protect their cultural heritage from a range of hazards, including fire, building collapse, flooding, earthquakes and landslides, and to draw up an emergency plan.

It is based on the Integrated Risk Management model applied by the FOCP and is divided into three main areas of action: prevention/preparedness, intervention and recovery.

Mounting a safe and effective response to events caused by emergencies, disasters in peacetime and armed conflict is the focal point of the strategy.

Here, the federal government will only provide financial support on the condition that the building project takes the organisational measures required to ensure the safe and long-term storage of cultural property, and that an emergency plan is in place as soon as the shelter enters into operation.

The fiduciary custody of cultural property under severe threat in the source state is limited in time and must occur under the auspices of UNESCO.

Precisely in the wars in former Yugoslavia this failed to work: On the contrary, buildings marked with the PCP emblem were considered to be particularly valuable and were often attacked first and destroyed (e.g. the Old Bridge in Mostar from the 16th century, the ancient town of Dubrovnik as world heritage site etc.).

In Switzerland the blue shields could, to date, only be placed on buildings in case of imminent armed conflict and at the request of the Federal Council.

Since the new legislation entered into force on 1 January 2015 the cantons also have the option to mark their cultural assets in times of peace according to standard regulations.

Here the Agency for the Protection of Cultural Property is primarily active at the federal level, seeking to remedy this issue with various brochures (see publications below).

The military may also become an important partner for the protection of cultural property because troops can be called in for subsidiary operations in the event of natural incidents for example.

In 2015, with the revision of the Act on the Protection of Cultural Property, the stipulations of the Second Protocol, which Switzerland ratified in 2004, will be integral part of Swiss law.