Dear ARLIS/NA and ARLIS-L Subscribers,

The following statement has been composed by members of the Public Policy Committee, and edited by members of the Executive Board to represent the Society’s formal response to recent events in Iraq. The Board approved this resolution via e-mail by a majority, although not a unanimous vote. Further, on behalf of the Board, I commend the Public Policy Committee for its timely and appropriate acknowledgement of ARLIS/NA’s particular interests in safeguarding libraries and other cultural property during wartime. On behalf of the Society, a special thanks to Public Policy Committee member, Timothy Shipe, this document’s primary author.

Resolution of the Art Libraries Society of North America Concerning the Impact of the War in Iraq

As artists from Goya to Grosz have shown us, war inevitably leads to human suffering: economic devastation, environmental damage, destruction of cultural treasures, and above all, loss of human life. Like any war, the 2003 invasion of Iraq has had all of these effects. While no other “disaster of war” can be meaningfully measured against the loss of a single life, the enormous damage that has been inflicted on Iraq’s most significant cultural properties is unique in our time. As one of the cradles of Western civilization, Iraq’s cultural treasures were a crucial part of the heritage not only of Iraq, but of all Humanity.

As members of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA), representing nearly 1,000 art librarians and related organizations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and overseas, we are deeply troubled by the recent actions of the United States in Iraq.

As human beings, we grieve for the thousands of lives lost in the allied invasion. While the precise number of casualties is as yet unknown, we are sobered to realize that this number certainly exceeds by many times the total membership of ARLIS/NA.

As art librarians, we are dismayed at the unimaginable destruction of Iraq’s cultural heritage, a heritage which was also that of many of the world’s civilizations, including our own. This destruction was made possible by the military action against Iraq and the consequent collapse of civil order, and was further enabled by the inexcusable negligence of the military in permitting treasures such as the National Museum and the National Library to be looted and burned. Thus, the United States bears at least partial, if not primary responsibility for the destruction of these precious cultural assets.

This negligence on the part of U.S. forces (negligence which prompted members of the President's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property to resign recently) is a clear violation of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, which, among other things, requires parties to a conflict to “prohibit, prevent and, if necessary, put a stop to any form of theft, pillage or misappropriation of, and any acts of vandalism directed against, cultural property” (Chapter I, Article 4). The United States has signed, but has not yet ratified, the Hague Convention. However, in 1999 the President of the United States, in submitting that document to the Senate for ratification, stated that “United States military policy and the conduct of operations are entirely consistent with the Convention’s provisions.” The events of the past month belie that assertion.

The recent loss of irreplaceable art works, artifacts, and documents attesting to 7,000 years of Mesopotamian and Iraqi history and civilization is the most devastating destruction of a cultural heritage since the Second World War, and is fully comparable to the burning of the library at Alexandria. While most of this loss is irretrievable, steps can and must be taken to prevent further loss of cultural treasures, and to recover Iraqi cultural properties that were stolen rather than destroyed. We understand that the record of Saddam Hussein's regime with respect to the protection of cultural properties may have been questionable; the brutality of that regime is indisputable. However, we hope the United States will hold itself to higher standards in its protection of Iraq's remaining treasures and in the efforts to recover those that have been stolen.

Accordingly, ARLIS/NA urges the United States to follow its stated policy of respecting the terms of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its Protocol, including especially Chapter I, Article 4 of the Convention.

We also urge the United States Senate to immediately ratify the Hague Convention.

Respectfully submitted by the Public Policy Committee and the Executive Board of

The Art Libraries Society of North America

Allen K. Townsend, President, ARLIS/NA

Librarian

Amon Carter Museum

3501 Camp Bowie Blvd

Fort Worth, Texas 76107

Phone: 817 989 5073

Fax: 817 989 5079

All opinions are my own and not those of my employer