The Norwegian Blue Shield Committee (BSN) in 2009 consisted of Axel Mykleby (ICOMOS) (chair), Leif Pareli (ICOM) (deputy chair) Anne Hustad (IFLA), and Linda Holmås (ICA). The representation of CCAAA in the Committee is still unresolved. The Committee had five meetings during the year as well as frequent contact by e-mail.

Statutes
At the Annual Meeting in March, some amendments were made in the Statutes in order to facilitate registration in the National Register of Organizations.

Participation in the Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield (ANCBS)
As Treasurer of ANCBS, Axel Mykleby participated in two meetings of the ANCBS Board on June 12th-13th in The Hague and on December 3rd in Paris combined with the Annual Meeting of Blue Shield France and meetings with ICOMOS President and Secretary General about improving communications with ICBS. Mykleby also participated in the ICOMOS Advisory Meeting in Malta, presenting ANCBS and encouraging the formation of new BS committees.

Participation in Travel and Tourism Exhibition
BSN participated in the Norwegian Travel and Tourism Exhibition in January 2009, with UNESCO, ABM-u, ICOM Norway and others, handing out information about illegal trade with cultural property. Several meetings were held during the autumn 2009 to prepare a leaflet to be handed out during the 2010 exhibition.

The War in Gaza
Blue Shield Norway wrote a press release which generated media interest and was later used by ANCBS as well as ICBS as a basis for their statements about the war. BSN also approached the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about aid to cultural property which was damaged during the war, but got no response.

Security in cultural institutions
The Committee continued earlier initiatives expressing concern for planned new buildings for museums and libraries situated near sea level in the Oslo harbour area.

A soldiers’ handbook
The project of producing a handbook for military personnel participating in inter¬national 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, and which had been halted pending an initiative from the Defence Ministry, should be reactivated.

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 maintains its offer to serve on the committee.

Second Protocol of the Hague Convention:
BSN has been kept informed about the preparations of ratifying the Second Protocol and will give its comments to the proposals for implementation of the Convention and the Protocols in 2010.

Use of the Blue Shield on Heritage buildings and Monuments
The use of the shield was discussed with the State Heritage Directorate. Their viewpoint is that protected sites should not be physically marked since this may lead to misunderstandings about protection status for unmarked sites. The Committee recognizes this view but will continue to argue in favour of using the shield, among other reasons also in order to increase public recognition of the shield and knowledge of the Hague Convention.

Nordic Cooperation
During the year, Axel Mykleby in ICOMOS and Leif Pareli in ICOM continued encouraging Nordic colleagues to take initiatives to have Blue Shield committees formed in their countries. There have been positive reactions but no concrete initiatives.

Finances
Until now, 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). In 2007 it was agreed that each of the member organizations should make an annual contribution of NOK 2000 towards covering such expenses but the implementation has been postponed because BSN still has not been included in the National Register of Organizations and therefore cannot have a bank account. ABM gave support for travel expenses in 2009 and has pledged to do so in 2010 as well.

Homepages
BSN purchased in 2008 the domain www.blueshield.no and this address is in function. However, for capacity reasons, BSN is still dependent on the goodwill of ICOM Norway and has automatic redirection to the Blue Shield pages on the homepages of ICOM Norway.

This text was excerpted from the Blue Shield Norway 2009 Annual Report (in Norwegian), adopted at the Annual Meeting of Blue Shield Norway on March 2nd, 2010.

▲ to the top                                                   Back to annual reports