The Norwegian Blue Shield Committee (BSN) in 2007 consisted of Anne Hustad (IFLA), Axel Mykleby (ICOMOS), Leif Pareli (ICOM) and Lars Jørgen Sandberg (ICA). Leif Pareli was in May re-elected as Chairman for one year. The committee had four meetings during the year and frequent contact by e-mail.

Security issues at cultural institutions
BSN has on several occasions pointed out the risk of localizing cultural institutions such as museums and libraries close to sea level near the waterfront in Oslo. Bringing such issues to the attention of authorities and the public remains a central task for BSN.

A soldiers’ handbook
An earlier project 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, has been halted, pending an initiative from the Defence Ministry of including such topics in their own publications. The project may be reactivated if considered necessary.

National advisory committee
Since 2005, BSN has been calling for the establishment of a national advisory committee concerning cultural heritage, as proposed in the First Protocol of the Hague Convention. The Ministry of the Environment has 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 and its offer to serve on the committee.

Hearing about legal responsibility for war crimes
In May, Blue Shield Norway sent in to the Ministry of Justice its opinion about the issue of making war crimes part of the Norwegian Criminal Code. BSN pointed out that destruction of cultural property was not mentioned in the proposed text. There is a growing recognition worldwide that such destruction should be considered a war crime and this view should be reflected in the Norwegian law text. The Hague Convention and its two protocols were hardly mentioned and should be explicitly made a part of the basis for the new law. BSN strongly advocated that such new legal provisions be actively enforced, so that Norway does not become a free haven for war criminals, including those responsible for destruction of cultural property.

Future organization of Blue Shield work
The chairman of Blue Shield Norway, Leif Pareli, participated in the Working Group established at the Blue Shield Meeting in The Hague in 2006 to prepare the establishing an Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield (ANCBS) and in 2007 he was elected Chairman of the Working Group. The Working Group held two meetings during 2007 (in March in The Hague and in September in Utrecht) and had frequent contact by e-mail, with the aim of establishing the ANCBS no later than the end of 2008.

Nordic Cooperation
Axel Mykleby participated in a meeting of the Nordic ICOMOS committees and advocated the establishment of Blue Shield committees in all Nordic countries, while Leif Pareli has been making the same point in the Nordic ICOM meetings. In Finland, there were signals of a certain interest. However, no concrete initiatives were taken in the other Nordic countries to establish Blue Shield committees there.

Finances
BSN has not had its own budget or resources; occasional expenses have been covered by the member organizations or by the Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority (ABM-utvikling). However, in 2007 it was agreed that each of the member organizations should make an annual contribution of NOK 2000 towards covering such expenses.

Homepages
It was decided to purchase the domain www.blueshield.no; however, for capacity reasons, BSN will continue to use the Blue Shield pages on the homepages of ICOM Norway.

Status by the end of the year
The Committee will continue its pressure on government authorities for implementation of The Hague Convention, 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.

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