Advocacy

As a national committee of Blue Shield, USCBS has advocated for the ratification and implementation of the Hague Convention and its protocols, in line with the stated goals of the International Committee of the Blue Shield.

Raising Public Awareness

The US Committee of the Blue Shield works to raise public awareness about the importance of cultural property as the shared heritage of all humankind. USCBS and its Board members participate in conferences, symposia, and other events throughout the world. We hold an annual meeting that is open to the public and participated in the American Red Cross essay and artwork competition for high school and college students on cultural property protection in 2022.

Organization

USCBS coordinates with the U.S. military, U.S. government, and cultural heritage organizations to protect cultural property worldwide during armed conflict.

Cultural Heritage Inventories
One of the main activities of USCBS has been the creation of cultural heritage inventories of protected cultural sites. These inventories prioritize the sites according to their significance and include relevant coordinates for each site and aid in the development of no-strike lists. The information has also been useful in site selection, evaluation, and assessment for military engineering construction and civil affairs projects.

Military Training
At the time of its founding, one of the primary goals of USCBS was the training of U.S. troops to recognize their obligation to protect cultural property as required by the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

Emergencies
USCBS coordinates with the U.S. military, U.S. government, and cultural heritage organizations to protect cultural property worldwide during armed conflict and natural disasters.

Learn more about the protection of cultural heritage throughout history

As early as the 2nd century BC, we know that authors were criticizing the wartime plundering of art. And, in more recent times, many laws and treaties have been written to protect and preserve cultural property. For instance, the Lieber Code of 1863, commissioned during the Civil War by President Abraham Lincoln, was the first legislation to explicitly call for the protection of cultural property during times of armed conflict. And, in 1954, The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in Times of Armed Conflict and its First Protocol were adopted after a meeting of representatives of the United Nations, under the auspices of UNESCO.

Affiliate Organizations