‘No-Strike’: Protection of Cultural Heritage against War Crimes in Syria

No strike designations for cultural heritage are one mechanism by which countries seek to uphold the requirements of the 1954 Hague Convention. As such, they are designed to be key instruments in protecting the listed sites from war crimes. Yet not all countries maintain such inventories of their own whether due to a lack of resources, political views about what should be represented, or the risk of misuse and abuse. This often places the onus on other governments to create lists about cultures other than their own during conflicts. Thus, there may be different lists compiled by different governments in a conflict, creating an unclear legal landscape for determining potential war crimes and raising significant questions about the effectiveness of no strikes as a protection mechanism. This presentation discusses current research seeking to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of no strike designations as a protection mechanism against war crimes in Syria. Using data on cultural heritage attacks from the height of the Syrian Conflict (2014-2017) compiled from open sources, a no strike list completed in approximately 2012, and measures of underlying risk, this research asks whether the designations served as a protective factor or a risk factor for a given site and the surrounding area. Results and implications for holding countries accountable for war crimes against cultural heritage are discussed.

About the Speaker

Michelle D. Fabiani is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice. Her interdisciplinary research examines patterns of behavior in international and transnational crimes with a focus on developing the tools, methods, and data to mitigate and prevent crime. Her work integrates technology-driven data collection, machine learning, historical analysis, and complex quantitative methods to explore these issues. Fabiani has explored these intersections in human smuggling, archaeological looting in conflict zones (Syria, Egypt), microdynamics of conflict in Syria, auction market dynamics, and presidential communications and domestic terrorism. She is the co-director of the Cultural Resilience Informatics and Analysis (CURIA) Lab and the Chair of the American Society of Criminology Division on Terrorism and Bias Crimes.