War and Cultural Heritage The Case of Religious Monuments

This paper attempts a recording and study of the international legal framework and jurisprudence related to the legal protection of cultural/religious monuments and investigates, through the study of contemporary cases, the effectiveness of the said legal framework. More specifically, using the archives of national and international organisations and international tribunals, we researched, studied and interpreted the available national and international legal texts and case law pertaining to the protection of religious cultural heritage, as well as the special legal framework regarding protection in times of conflict. This research has concluded that, although there is in place an international legal framework on the protection of cultural environment, and the religious/cultural wealth of peoples in particular, in reality it is difficult to uphold the existing legal rules in times of hostilities. So, any and all intervention on behalf of the international community has an occasional and suppressive -rather than preventiverole.