The Norwegian Blue Shield Committee in 2006 consisted of Anne Hustad (IFLA), Axel Mykleby (ICOMOS), Leif Pareli (ICOM) (chair) and Synne Stavheim (ICA). The committee had four meetings during the year and frequent contact by e-mail.

Education of military personnel
As a result of a conference organized in cooperation with Norwegian Red Cross in May 2005 contact was established with military units resulting in Blue Shield Norway being invited to lecture for personnel preparing for service in Afghanistan.

A soldiers’ handbook
Educational material from the lectures was expanded with the intention of producing a handbook for military personnel participating in international operations, dealing with topics such as defining cultural heritage, explaining the importance of protecting cultural heritage in war situations and giving an overview of relevant international conventions as well as national legislation. The project is planned to be completed in 2007.

National advisory committee
In another initiative in the aftermath of the 2005 conference, Blue Shield Norway wrote to the Ministry of the Environment about the Hague Convention’s resolution II (1954), calling for the establishment of a national advisory committee concerning cultural heritage. Blue Shield Norway advocated the establishment of such a committee and volunteered to participate. In its answer, the Ministry indicated that this proposal would be considered as part of the current process of developing a strategy for implementing the Hague Convention. Blue Shield Norway will continue to advocate the establishment of such a committee.

UNESCO long term programme
In June, Blue Shield Norway wrote to the Norwegian UNESCO commission, which had asked for inputs in its new long-term programme, emphasizing the importance of Norway implementing the Hague Convention.

Profile of Blue Shield responsibilities
At its fall meeting, Blue Shield Norway discussed the question of preparing against natural disasters as part of the work field of the committee. There was agreement that such disasters are included in the Hague Convention as well as the implementation plan for the Second Protocol and consequently form part of the Blue Shield platform. The concrete occasion for bringing up the topic was a recent plan to move Oslo’s main public library into new premises close to the harbour and with possible risks of flooding of subterranean storages in case of extreme high water. Blue Shield Norway pointed this out in a letter to the City of Oslo and the action resulted in TV and press attention.

Future organization of Blue Shield work
The chairman of Blue Shield Norway, Leif Pareli, participated in a conference and meeting in The Hague in September dealing with the question of how to organize the Blue Shield system for more efficient cooperation and action. At the meeting there was agreement to establish an Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield (ANCBS) and a work group would continue with the process of creating a basis for establishing an association by 2007.

Nordic Cooperation
Axel Mykleby participated in a meeting of the Nordic ICOMOS committees in Helsinki, Finland and advocated the establishment of Blue Shield committees in all Nordic countries. In Finland, such establishment is in progress and in Sweden an earlier initiative must be renewed. It was proposed that there should be regular contact between Nordic Blue Shield committees. In April, a similar request was made by representatives of ICOM Norway at the annual meeting of the boards of the Nordic ICOM committees, which took place in Århus, Denmark.

Press releases
Due to alarming news reports about the grave situation for cultural heritage sites in the Middle East, Blue Shield Norway in August sent out a press release pointing to the extraordinary importance of the heritage of that area and called for all parties to provide protection to endangered heritage sites.

The UNESCO Convention on Illicit Trade
By the end of the year, it was announced that the Norwegian government had decided to ratify the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (UNESCO 1970). Blue Shield Norway greeted this with appreciation, due to the close relationship between war situations, plunder and illicit trade in cultural heritage.

Other activities
In March, committee chairman Leif Pareli lectured in the University of Oslo about cultural heritage in war situations, the Hague Convention and the Blue Shield organization.

Status by the end of the year
The cooperation established with the Military Academy in the wake of the Blue Shield-Red Cross conference in 2005 was an important issue for Blue Shield Norway in 2006. Also, a continued pressure on government authorities for implementation of The Hague Convention has remained a central issue, likewise the call for ratification of the Second Protocol and for a government initiative to create a national emergency plan for cultural heritage. Several of these issues were continued from earlier years and will probably continue to be on the agenda for the foreseeable future.

At the same time, the committee realizes that the Blue Shield idea has a fragile basis and that knowledge about the Blue Shield idea and goodwill towards its work must be strengthened in the participating organizations in Norway. It is also important to strengthen Blue Shield work in an international context, among other things by stimulating contact and cooperation between existing national Blue Shield committees and between national committees and the ICBS. The present English-language Annual Report is one contribution to this.

Oslo, May 22nd 2007

▲ to the top                                                   Back to annual reports