Blue Shield Australia submission to the Australian Government Inquiry into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, March 2018
Australia is a signatory to the 1954 Hague Convention Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflict, but has yet to adopt the First and Second Protocols. Signing of the Protocols would place Australia on an international level and underline legal commitment alongside the 108 nations that are parties to the First Protocol and Second Protocol [New Zealand (2013) and the UK (2017)]
Immediately following the Blue Shield Symposium [29-30 January 2018] a “Cultural Property Protection Expert Group Roundtable” met at Old Parliament House, Canberra [31 January 2018]. Representatives attended from the Departments of Defence, Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Communications and the Arts, and Environment and Energy met with BSA, ARC, the International Committee of the Red Cross, peak bodies and international observers from the UK, Japan and the Pacific. Discussions centred around enhancing discourse on Cultural Property Protection, and move towards the support of the Australian government in the adoption of the Protocols and Hague Convention for Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflict.