Crimes Against Cultural Property in Mali

Interesting article on mali and the recent events there affecting the cultural heritage:

On 1 July 2012 Mrs Fatou Bensouda, the newly appointed Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, stressed that the deliberate destruction of the mausolea [in Timbuktu] may constitute a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute and started an preliminary examination. On 21 December 2012 the UN Security Council in Resolution 2085 condemned strongly all abuses of human rights in the north of Mali by armed rebels, terrorist and other extremist groups, including those involving destruction of cultural and religious sites, reiterating that some of such acts may amount to crimes under the Rome Statute and that their perpetrators must be held accountable.

While the destruction of monuments concerns the author, the carrying off and destruction of cultural property (the illicit trading, stealing and looting of cultural property) is not covered in that blog.

D. Zwaagdstra, 'Crimes against Cultural Property in Mali', Peace Palace Library The international law library, January 18, 2013 

 hat-tip to Conflict Archaeology