Heritage in Danger: Armed Conflict in West Africa and the Blue Shield Approach

The present paper is an evaluation of the issue of the protection of heritage resources in the event of armed conflicts in West Africa which is the object of interest of the Blue Shield. The armed conflict in Mali in 2012 presented the first occasion for Blue Shield to seek an intervention in West Africa for the protection of heritage resources in the course of a war following the wanton destruction of heritage sites by the radical Islamist insurgence. The subject of the protection of World cultural and natural heritage resources had for a long time preoccupied the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and there had been a number of international conventions to address the problem. The Hague Convention of 1954 specifically seeks to protect heritage resources in the event of armed conflicts and it forms the basis for the Blue Shield approach.