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Pillars of Patrimony: Punishing Criminals who Damage Cultural Sites
- jakefarrella
- Oct 25, 2022
- 2 min read
by Jake Austin, 25 October 2022
Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi stands trial in the International Criminal Court in 2016. His only charge was the destruction of cultural heritage, for which he plead guilty.
In January 2012, armed rebels and radical Islamists took control of Timbuktu and Gao, two cities in the north of Mali, after protracted fighting with government forces. As bullets flew and munitions exploded, historical mausoleums and mosques took damage and collapsed in the crossfire. Although that damage was not the main concern at the time nor during the reclamation of the city, officials in the United Nations did not forget. After French forces led an operation to seize back the area successfully in January 2013, the Malian government referred the criminal case for destruction to the International Criminal Court, which obtained a warrant in 2015. One week later, the rebel on his way to the Hague to stand trial, transferred from a Malian prison. He plead guilty (the first defendant in ICC history to do so) and was sentenced to nine years imprisonment.
This case is a major trendsetter for the historical protections ONE also seeks. It is the first case with the destruction of cultural property charge as the sole issue at stake, becoming an example for future cases to cite. It is also significant for its heavy use of UNESCO and its classifications of the mosque and mausoleums before the 2012 violence. UNESCO gained political and legal teeth beyond their previous function. Another particular detail about the court proceedings is its list of victims: the Timbuktu populace were primarily victimized but the court also recognized the entire international community as a victim. Billions of people not physically involved at all were still affected because the ten destroyed sites were a cultural loss for everyone, per the court.
We at ONE hope that more destroyers of history will see their day on trial, but also hope that more proactive protections and laws will prevent destruction in the first place.
Thank you for reading!
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