Kulturarvets skydd i väpnade konflikter. Kulturarvsbrott vid ICTY
This graduation thesis aims to give a survey of how cultural property is protected withininternational law and how these protections worked during the conflicts in the formerYugoslavia and later at the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY.Cultural heritage is important symbols for ethnicity, religion or political views. Because ofthis cultural property has been targeted in armed conflicts as long as can beremembered. The protection of cultural property within international law has developedfrom the midst of the 19th century up til today and is still developing towards strongerprotection. One of the latest armed conflicts where the cultural property became targetedwas the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990?s. 1993 ICTY was founded to prosecute thoseresponsible for war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia since 1991. Among thosecrimes are crimes against cultural property as a crime against the laws or customs ofwar, or as a crime against humanity.This thesis deals especially with three cases form ICTY, one concerning destruction ofmosques in the La?va valley in Bosnia-Herzegovina and two concerning thebombardments against the town Dubrovnik in Croatia.The thesis concludes that the mosques in the La?va valley was targeted because theywere part of the cultural heritage of the Muslims, and the Old town of Dubrovnik wastargeted despite the fact that it was part of the cultural heritage of the Croats. ICTYrefers to the wide range of international treaties concerning the protection of culturalproperty in armed conflicts. Because of the long development of treaties the tribunal isable to convict crimes against cultural property as a crime against the laws or customs ofwar. The final responsibility for the protection of cultural property lies with the operationalgroups who refrain from attacking cultural property.