The Intentional Destruction of the Cultural Heritage of Humankind. What Are the Remedies under International Law? Final Considerations

The purpose of this chapter is to draw some general conclusions from the various essays contained in the edited volume Intentional Destruction of Cultural Heritage and the Law: A Research Companion. The subject of the discussion in this book is the study of remedies for the Intentional Destruction of the Cultural Heritage of Humankind (IDCHH) under international law. The term “remedy” is used in a broad sense to encompass any response to IDCHH, including, for example, an appeal to a judicial mechanism to obtain a pronouncement of condemnation and/or the imposition of a penalty and/or an order for reparation in the strict sense. It is then essential to resolve the question of “who” is entitled to (re)act and, even before that, “who” is the one whose rights have been violated by the IDCHH. In turn, this step of identifying who is entitled to take action against IDCHH is indispensable for assessing the nature and extent of the remedy. These may vary considerably depending on the (State and non-State) entities to which the duty to refrain from performing IDCHH is owed. Against this background, this chapter discusses the customary nature of the prohibition of IDCHH and the erga omnes structure of the resulting obligations. It also examines the effectiveness of international remedies to redress or punish the perpetrator of IDCHH, and, in particular, the problems that may arise in relation to the different jurisdictions of the many international courts or tribunals. As usual, these conclusions do not claim to be exhaustive.