Cultural heritage destruction and the ICC: lessons from connecting cultural heritage and human rights through a library lens

This chapter analyses cultural heritage destruction and the role of the ICC in this area. The chapter assesses the background of cultural heritage destruction as an ICC crime and presents a normative perspective. For the latter, the chapter draws on interdisciplinary foundational law and humanities research, notably at the intersection of human rights and cultural heritage law in the context of library practice. Scrutinising the argumentation in international cultural heritage cases, the authors elaborate that an analysis of the Al Mahdi case at the nexus of cultural heritage principles and human rights from the specificity of libraries informs a legal normative argument for the protection of cultural heritage in the ICC’s work. The chapter considers these issues and the broader lessons following from this viewpoint to argue that the potential implications of cultural heritage destruction as an ICC crime warrant specific scrutiny in the case of libraries.