Emma Cunliffe
An archaeologist by background, Dr Emma Cunliffe is a member of the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace team at Newcastle University. Her work focuses on the protection and destruction of cultural heritage during armed conflict, examining the reasons for damage, and developing proactive solutions to protect it, with particular focus on the role of the armed forces, and the place of national and international law, which is the focus of her recent co-edited book, Safeguarding Cultural Property in the 1954 Hague Convention. All Possible Steps? (2022).
She specialises in satellite imagery analysis and geo-spatial data. She has worked on a number of large-scale site recording and assessment projects using satellite imagery, such as the Durham University Fragile Crescent Project, Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa, as a consultant for UNOSAT-UNITAR, doing damage imagery assessments of heritage sites damaged during conflict together with UNESCO, and has published widely on site damage, most recently co-authoring a Report on the Implementation of International Humanitarian Law with regards to the Protection of Cultural Heritage in the Occupied Tskhinvali Region, Georgia, with the NGO Blue Shield Georgia.
She is the Secretary for UK Blue Shield, and part of the Secretariat for Blue Shield International, supporting the Blue Shield Movement. In that role, she is the international coordinator of the worldwide movement, as well as supporting civil military cooperation and providing subject matter expertise for military training (focussing on cultural property protection, human security, and protection of civilians), as well as advocating for improvements in policy and implementation of heritage protection law.
Her new co-edited book, The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Destruction (with Antonio Gonzalez-Zarandona and Melathi Saladin) is due out in 2023.
Newcastle University: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/people/profile/emmacunliffe.html
The Blue Shield: www.theblueshield.org
Supervisors: Prof Graham Philip; Prof Peter Stone
She specialises in satellite imagery analysis and geo-spatial data. She has worked on a number of large-scale site recording and assessment projects using satellite imagery, such as the Durham University Fragile Crescent Project, Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa, as a consultant for UNOSAT-UNITAR, doing damage imagery assessments of heritage sites damaged during conflict together with UNESCO, and has published widely on site damage, most recently co-authoring a Report on the Implementation of International Humanitarian Law with regards to the Protection of Cultural Heritage in the Occupied Tskhinvali Region, Georgia, with the NGO Blue Shield Georgia.
She is the Secretary for UK Blue Shield, and part of the Secretariat for Blue Shield International, supporting the Blue Shield Movement. In that role, she is the international coordinator of the worldwide movement, as well as supporting civil military cooperation and providing subject matter expertise for military training (focussing on cultural property protection, human security, and protection of civilians), as well as advocating for improvements in policy and implementation of heritage protection law.
Her new co-edited book, The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Destruction (with Antonio Gonzalez-Zarandona and Melathi Saladin) is due out in 2023.
Newcastle University: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/people/profile/emmacunliffe.html
The Blue Shield: www.theblueshield.org
Supervisors: Prof Graham Philip; Prof Peter Stone
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Papers by Emma Cunliffe
Talking tactics: Environmental protection and armed conflicts: Environmental SCIENTIST June 2020, 30-37.
https://www.the-ies.org/resources/talking-tactics-environmental
Cultural heritage includes tangible places (such as historic sites and buildings), and moveable artefacts (like archives, libraries, art, and museum collections). These are collectively often referred to as cultural property. It also includes intangible remains of the past such as song, dance, and oral traditions remembered and ‘carried’ by individuals and communities. Intangible cultural heritage can be considered as part of the wider framework of protecting civilians. However, tangible manifestations of culture, here "cultural property" (CP) are frequently dismissed. This paper questions whether damage and destruction of cultural property really are inevitable, or whether at least some might be mitigated and avoided if appropriate action were taken. It begins with the historical background to cultural property protection (CPP), before introducing the Blue Shield (an NGO that works with the armed forces to protect CP). It demonstrates why CPP is important to the military, reflects on recent CPP activity, and concludes with some recommendations.
bringing with it loss of life and the displacement of the Syrian people as well
as extensive damage to, and destruction of, the country’s cultural heritage.
This article will first provide an overview and explanation of the national
and international legal framework for protecting cultural property in
conflict as it applies to the Syrian State and the non-State actors involved,
using examples from the whole conflict, including the recent actions of
Da’esh. Second, we demonstrate that the destruction of all types of cultural
property, regardless of its importance, can be considered a prosecutable
violation of these laws, and we examine the possibilities for prosecution.
Following from this discussion, we question whether the existing framework
can be considered effective and consider the role the international heritage
community can play.
This paper will present an overview of EAMENA’s work in the Middle East and North Africa, showcasing our approach to dealing with heritage in countries that are experiencing significant unrest, in order to highlight the lessons that can be learned and applied to post-conflict countries. Using examples from Libya and Egypt, neither of which are in conflict, but which are both struggling with civil unrest, I will highlight the types of damage that are often overlooked, that occur to the majority of the heritage resource. Civil unrest provides an opportunity for increasing illegal development and unrestricted agriculture, and – as many MENA countries lack comprehensive digitised heritage records – such activity can be hard to monitor and prevent, even on World Heritage sites. All of Libya’s World Heritage sites, for example, have just been placed on the World Heritage in Danger list, and Egypt’s sites are also suffering. In some countries, entire landscapes devoted to a particular activity are at risk. For example, in Egypt, areas with a long history of mineral exploitation are also witnessing extensive re-exploitation, (both local and international), destroying the largely unrecorded historical mines. In addition, the international media attention on high profile extremist incidents has diverted attention from the more localised – and more widespread - expressions of this phenomenon, which must be understand in a local context in order to comprehend the true extent and full impact of the issue.
In such cases, the EAMENA approach is vital, as without a comprehensive understanding of the full extent of threats to the heritage resource, and the problems created by decreasing security – of exactly the sort seen in post-conflict countries – it is extremely difficult to understand the threats to heritage at this time, and to develop and implement strategies that can counter them.
This paper will finish by highlighting the work of EAMENA in aiding our colleagues in the MENA region in tackling the threats to their heritage. This works includes creation and collation of baseline data, the creation of watch lists for key locations, and training for staff in MENA countries in both satellite imagery interpretation and the creation of digital records for heritage recording. We believe this provides a best-practice approach to heritage management, and offers insight into methods of tackling heritage loss in the post-conflict period.
Talking tactics: Environmental protection and armed conflicts: Environmental SCIENTIST June 2020, 30-37.
https://www.the-ies.org/resources/talking-tactics-environmental
Cultural heritage includes tangible places (such as historic sites and buildings), and moveable artefacts (like archives, libraries, art, and museum collections). These are collectively often referred to as cultural property. It also includes intangible remains of the past such as song, dance, and oral traditions remembered and ‘carried’ by individuals and communities. Intangible cultural heritage can be considered as part of the wider framework of protecting civilians. However, tangible manifestations of culture, here "cultural property" (CP) are frequently dismissed. This paper questions whether damage and destruction of cultural property really are inevitable, or whether at least some might be mitigated and avoided if appropriate action were taken. It begins with the historical background to cultural property protection (CPP), before introducing the Blue Shield (an NGO that works with the armed forces to protect CP). It demonstrates why CPP is important to the military, reflects on recent CPP activity, and concludes with some recommendations.
bringing with it loss of life and the displacement of the Syrian people as well
as extensive damage to, and destruction of, the country’s cultural heritage.
This article will first provide an overview and explanation of the national
and international legal framework for protecting cultural property in
conflict as it applies to the Syrian State and the non-State actors involved,
using examples from the whole conflict, including the recent actions of
Da’esh. Second, we demonstrate that the destruction of all types of cultural
property, regardless of its importance, can be considered a prosecutable
violation of these laws, and we examine the possibilities for prosecution.
Following from this discussion, we question whether the existing framework
can be considered effective and consider the role the international heritage
community can play.
This paper will present an overview of EAMENA’s work in the Middle East and North Africa, showcasing our approach to dealing with heritage in countries that are experiencing significant unrest, in order to highlight the lessons that can be learned and applied to post-conflict countries. Using examples from Libya and Egypt, neither of which are in conflict, but which are both struggling with civil unrest, I will highlight the types of damage that are often overlooked, that occur to the majority of the heritage resource. Civil unrest provides an opportunity for increasing illegal development and unrestricted agriculture, and – as many MENA countries lack comprehensive digitised heritage records – such activity can be hard to monitor and prevent, even on World Heritage sites. All of Libya’s World Heritage sites, for example, have just been placed on the World Heritage in Danger list, and Egypt’s sites are also suffering. In some countries, entire landscapes devoted to a particular activity are at risk. For example, in Egypt, areas with a long history of mineral exploitation are also witnessing extensive re-exploitation, (both local and international), destroying the largely unrecorded historical mines. In addition, the international media attention on high profile extremist incidents has diverted attention from the more localised – and more widespread - expressions of this phenomenon, which must be understand in a local context in order to comprehend the true extent and full impact of the issue.
In such cases, the EAMENA approach is vital, as without a comprehensive understanding of the full extent of threats to the heritage resource, and the problems created by decreasing security – of exactly the sort seen in post-conflict countries – it is extremely difficult to understand the threats to heritage at this time, and to develop and implement strategies that can counter them.
This paper will finish by highlighting the work of EAMENA in aiding our colleagues in the MENA region in tackling the threats to their heritage. This works includes creation and collation of baseline data, the creation of watch lists for key locations, and training for staff in MENA countries in both satellite imagery interpretation and the creation of digital records for heritage recording. We believe this provides a best-practice approach to heritage management, and offers insight into methods of tackling heritage loss in the post-conflict period.
Significant attention today focusses on heritage destruction, but the key international laws prohibiting it - the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its First and Second Protocols (1954/1999) - lay out two core strands to limit the damage: the measures of respect for armed forces, and the safeguarding measures states parties should put in place in peacetime. This volume incorporates wide-ranging international perspectives from those in the academy, together with practitioner insights from the armed forces and heritage professionals, to explore the safeguarding regime. Its contributors consider such questions as whether state parties have truly taken "all possible steps", as the Convention tasks them; what we can learn from past practice, and how the Convention is implemented today; the implications of new trends in heritage law and management - such as the rise of the World Heritage Convention, and in the increasing focus on safe havens rather than refuges; whether new methods of heritage management such as Risk Assessment theory can be applied; and, in a Convention specifically focussed on state parties, what of their opponents, armed non-state actors. Topics range from leadership and the role of the State Party Representative, to the responsibilities of armed non-state groups in safeguarding, to explorations of past and current practice in different countries. Using a mix of case studies and theoretical explorations of new and existing methodologies, the contributions cover a broad timespan from World War II to today, with examples from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Overall, the volume's purpose is to promote wider understanding of the practical effectiveness of the Convention in the contemporary world, by investigating the perceived opportunities and constraints the Convention offers today to protect cultural property in armed conflict, and firmly establishing that such protection must begin in peace.
CONTRIBUTORS: Maamoun Abdulkarim, Laura Albisetti, Pascal Bongard, Brittni Bradford, Rino Büchel, Emma Cunliffe, Philip Deans, Joanne Dingwall McCafferty, Paul Fox, Kristin Hausler, Stavros-Evdokimos Pantazopoulos, Nikolaus Paumgartner, Nigel Pollard, Lee Rotherham, Valentina Sabucco, Peter Stone, Raphael Zingg.
Report on the Implementation of International Humanitarian Law with regards to the Protection of Cultural Heritage in the Occupied Tskhinvali Region, Georgia, its comprehensive Annex detailing the damage to each site and the sources of information, and an online database with a map-based visualization platform containing registered cultural heritage sites across the entire Tskhinvali Region.
Damage to cultural heritage in the Tskhinvali Region is significant, and occurs for many reasons. This report has analysed over 700 sites and examined national and international actions to protect the region’s heritage. Using multi-source analysis that includes eyewitness reports, interviews, media, social media, published NGO and IO reports, and satellite imagery assessment via Google Earth and published reports by UNOSAT-UNITAR, it demonstrates that damage was incurred not only during the hostilities in 2008, but has continued since and still continues today. Following the fighting, other factors include illegal interventions causing alteration of the historic fabric of sites, construction of military facilities and other new infrastructure in close proximity to the sites, alongside general neglect. These pose serious risks to the preservation of the cultural heritage of the region.
The slow attrition of Georgian cultural heritage forms part of a wider narrative of loss. The lives of the people who owned and used the cultural heritage - whose ancestors may have built the sites, who visited them, who worshipped in the churches and the synagogue - are deeply impacted by the conflict in ways that move beyond their immediate needs. Not only have they lost access to their sites, but their traditions and practices and ways of living that have been passed down through generations are disrupted, and in some cases at risk of permanent loss. The demolition of historic Georgian villages, loss of authentic fabric at sites, and modification of churches, is part of a wider revision of the entire landscape, also evidenced in the alteration of place names, and revision of historical and religious narratives.
Actions to protect and maintain heritage are hindered by lack of access; monitoring is extremely difficult. Since the early 1990s and especially in the years since 2008, given the political deadlock and lack of access, it has been - and remains - impossible for Georgia to make any progress in implementation of the 1954 Hague Convention in safeguarding and preserving its cultural property. Based on a detailed analysis of the situation of the region’s cultural heritage, this report concludes with a series of recommendations to improve protection, covering not only the implementation of international law, but good practice.
Team of Authors:
Manana Tevzadze (Georgian National Committee of the Blue Shield), Salome Meladze and Badri Gasparov (Didi Liakhvi Valley Museum-Reserve), Emma Cunliffe (part of the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace, Newcastle University)
Research Assistants: (Georgian National Committee of the Blue Shield), Yasaman Nabati and Lynn Edwards (part of the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace, Newcastle University)
Full database at the link below
Bjørgo, E., Boccardi, G., Cunliffe, E., Fiol, M., Jellison, T., Pederson, W., and Saslow, C. 2014. Satellite-based Damage Assessment to Cultural Heritage Sites in Syria. UNITAR/UNOSAT. http://www.unitar.org/unosat/chs-syria
Our joint task force report—#CultureUnderThreat: Recommendations for the U.S. Government—details the current situation and puts forward 31 specific
recommendations to address the ongoing crisis. It calls for new policies, practices, and priorities for the United States to implement, both on its own and in conjunction with the international community and private sector. These include steps that can be taken by the Obama Administration, Congress, United Nations, and the art market.
Using satellite imagery to assess the state of the World Heritage property as of December 2016 in the wake of years of armed conflict, this report provides the first
thorough accounting of the impact of the conflict on Aleppo’s cultural heritage.
The conflict in the city damaged most of its cultural heritage landmarks and urban infrastructure, including the Citadel, the Great Mosque, and countless other historical buildings with cultural, religious, economic and social significance. Through a partnership between UNESCO and UNITAR-UNOSAT, the assessment combines the expertise of imagery analysts, historians, archaeologists and architects to show with great accuracy and detail the extent of damage throughout the entire World Heritage property.
Restoring cultural heritage is part of the process of healing communities in the wake of a crisis. This report provides an essential foundation to address the complex and numerous challenges facing Aleppo in organizing its reconstruction and recovery – one important step forward in the rehabilitation of the city and its vibrant cultural heritage.
The link to the full publication: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000265826
“In the wake of the fragile ceasefire, cultural heritage experts and organisations are now beginning taking stock of the damage,” Cunliffe writes in the introduction to Damage to the Soul: Syria’s Cultural Heritage in Conflict. “Concerned citizens within the country, expatriates and heritage organisations are monitoring the damage as best they can and sending as much information as possible to the outside world. This report represents a summary of the available information.”
Volume II
Volume 1 covers March 2011 - March 2014
https://www.academia.edu/6801072/Towards_a_Protection_of_the_Syrian_Cultural_Heritage_A_summary_of_the_international_responses_March_2011_-_March_2014_