The Norwegian Blue Shield Committee (BSN) in 2010 consisted of Axel Mykleby (ICOMOS) (chair), Leif Pareli (ICOM) (deputy chair) Anne Hustad, later Svein Arne Tinnesand (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.

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 6th – 9th in Vienna and on October 15th – 16th in The Hague. Mykleby also participated in the ICOMOS Advisory Meeting in Dublin in October, presenting ANCBS and encouraging the formation on new BS committees.

Participation in Travel and Tourism Exhibition
BSN participated in the Norwegian Travel and Tourism Exhibition in January 2010, with ABM-u, ICOM Norway and others handing out information about illegal trade with cultural property.

Earthquake in Haiti, January 2010
Blue Shield Norway participated in actions to bring forward aid to cultural institutions in Haiti and was active in providing information to Norwegian authorities about the needs of such institutions.

Oil fields in Iraq
As the Norwegian oil company Statoil was involved in exploring an oil field in Southern Iraq (West Qurna II), BSN wrote the company about the need for archaeological surveys in the area. There has been no response so far.

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, was discussed and there was agreement that this project 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 was kept informed about the preparations of ratifying the Second Protocol and gave its comments to the proposals for implementation of the Convention and the Protocols in 2010. Regrettably, the ratification was later postponed again.

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.

Establishing new Blue Shield National Committees
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. Axel Mykleby gave a presentation at the meeting of the new Irish committee during his visit to Dublin.

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 still does not have a bank account. ABM gave support for travel expenses in 2010.

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 2010 Annual Report (in Norwegian), adopted at the Annual Meeting of Blue Shield Norway on March 16th, 2011

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