The Role of Specialized International Organizations in Protecting Cultural Property During International Armed Conflicts

Abstract

With the birth of the United Nations Organization, many international specialized organizations, known as specialized agencies, emerged.These agencies are international organizations with a global orientation in many specialized fields such as culture, economy, environment and others that try to achieve their goals through their work and thus produce tangible effects on the international arena in the aspect concerned with these international organizations specialized in specific fields.

These organizations are considered affiliated to the federation of state administrations working in the field of international cooperation in many fields, especially cultural- the subject of our research- that affect the common interests of their member states.

The roles of specialized international organizations vary, as the role of UNESCO stands out, which has sponsored many cultural sites and included them in the database with electronic content, for example, the House of Victor Horta in Belgium, Paphos in Cyprus, and Monti Castle in Italy.

And even if the specialized international organizations have specific specialized goals that they seek to achieve, but by extrapolating the objectives and principles of these specialized organizations, it turns out that they contain within them other than the development and preservation of cultural sites,  another objective is to protect the cultural sites.We will discuss it in order to see the scope of this protection through these organisations, and then we wiil discss two models: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the international agencies that assist in preserving cultural sites during conflicts.