DCMS's International Cultural Heritage Protection Programme
The UK is a world leader and innovator in cultural heritage protection and has taken concrete steps to safeguard some of humanity’s most valued cultural heritage.
Introduction
The UK is a world leader and innovator in cultural heritage protection, both tangible and intangible, and recognises its critical role in tackling some of the most pressing issues facing the global community today. Following the deliberate looting and destruction of cultural assets by Daesh (Islamic State) as a tool of war in the Middle East and North Africa, the UK has taken concrete steps to safeguard some of humanity’s most valued cultural heritage.
Since 2015 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has worked with partners including the British Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UNESCO, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum to deliver cultural heritage projects in ODA eligible countries across the Middle East, North Africa, East Africa, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe.
In addition to promoting economic development, culture plays a role in peacebuilding, security and stability, as well as building resilience to crises in fragile and conflict-affected States. This highlights the vital role that protecting culture and cultural heritage plays in the UK’s international development agenda.
Objectives
Through a portfolio of delivery partners, the International Cultural Heritage Protection (ICHP) Programme works across 4 integrated themes to ensure the protection of cultural heritage: conflict and security, climate change, serious and organised crime, and research.
Conflict and security
The conflict and security strand seeks to deliver cultural heritage protection activities that focus on stabilisation efforts, peacebuilding, and sustainable growth in countries affected by conflict. This area also incorporates the UK’s obligations under the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property during Armed Conflict and its Two Protocols (1954 and 1999).
Climate change
Launched in 2019, the climate change strand delivers groundbreaking programmes on protecting cultural heritage at risk from climate change and/or natural disasters, building climate resilience and disaster-preparedness capacity in ODA-eligible countries.
Serious and organised crime
The illicit trafficking of cultural objects by serious and organised crime (SOC) actors is intrinsically linked with conflict and climate insecurity. The ICHP Programme works with delivery partners to build capacities of key stakeholders in ODA eligible countries to help detect and mitigate the trafficking of cultural property, while also contributing to the improvement of investigative capabilities and cross-country communication.
Research
Established in 2020, our research strand focuses specifically on funding exploratory projects which further our understanding of the connection between cultural heritage protection and climate change. The ICHP Programme fosters a strong connection with researchers to enhance DCMS’s policy development in this field.
Delivery partners
The UK’s international cultural heritage protection initiatives are delivered primarily through specialist programmes overseen by DCMS. All programmes prioritise engaging with local communities, building capacity and creating opportunities for long-term sustainable growth, ensuring diversity and inclusion remain at the forefront of programming. All programmes are aligned with the UK’s overseas development objectives and conform to strict guidelines on overseas development aid spending, achieving value for money and ensuring the promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing countries by safeguarding cultural heritage at risk.
The British Council - Cultural Protection Fund 2016-2025
Launched in 2016, DCMS’s flagship Cultural Protection Fund (CPF) is delivered in partnership with the British Council, who oversee programme delivery and development. The fund aims to help to create sustainable opportunities for economic and social development through building local capacity to foster, safeguard and promote cultural heritage, particularly in regions affected by conflict. It currently operates across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Since 2016, the Cultural Protection Fund has given grants of over £50 million to 159 projects to protect cultural heritage in 19 countries, but the need for our work has never been greater. Last year alone we received funding requests of almost 20 times the budget for our entire current programme.
Stephanie Grant, Director of the Cultural Protection Fund at the British Council (2024)
Recognising the urgent need to protect cultural heritage from climate change, in 2020 DCMS and the British Council launched a new climate programme as part of the CPF, the Disaster and Climate Change Mitigation funding round. Funds were awarded to 5 global heritage projects that respond to the risk of climate change to heritage in East Africa. The projects aimed to advance regional cultural protection by supporting knowledge exchange between experts and empowering local organisations with the skills to protect their cultural heritage.
In May 2024, the CPF announced funding of 22 new projects, across 10 countries, with a funding total of over £2 million. The projects will protect cultural heritage at risk from the effects of conflict and/or climate change. The funding will support projects across Syria, Iraq, Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Uganda, Tanzania and for the first time, Pakistan and Nepal, with the latter 2 being new additions to the CPF’s country portfolio.
UNESCO Heritage Emergency Fund
The ICHP Programme has an annual contingency to contribute directly to emergency support for at-risk/damaged cultural heritage during humanitarian crises. For example, the Programme contributed 2 sums (£200,000 and £550,000) to the UNESCO Heritage Emergency Fund over 2023 and 2024 to aid UNESCO in responding to emergency requests for assistance in ODA eligible countries. In 2020, the ICHP Programme also contributed emergency funding via the Prince Claus Fund to enable a first-response intervention following the explosion in Beirut in 2020.
Arts and Humanities Research Council: Cultural Heritage and Climate Programme 2020-2025
In 2020, DCMS partnered with the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Global Challenges Fund to run a pilot urgency grants scheme. The groundbreaking scheme centred on projects exploring how developing countries respond to the challenges for cultural heritage resulting from environmental disasters and climate change.
Originating from a cohort of 9 projects, the programme has generated research outputs and policy impacts, through 30 partners, for communities across 12 ODA countries, including Nigeria, Tanzania, Yemen, Zimbabwe, India, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Brazil. A future expansive phase will create a global Research Observatory, coordinating cultural heritage voices in international climate discussions.
Recently, five new research projects have been announced to mitigate climate change and build capacity for climate action. The projects will examine cultural heritage and environmental policies in countries including:
- India
- Indonesia
- Jordan
- Brazil
Heritage Minister, Sir Chris Bryant, said:
These five new research projects will translate research into policy, developing new international standards for climate resilience and sustainability and ensuring cultural heritage around the world survives to tell our story for generations to come.
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe: Ukrainian Heritage Crime Taskforce
Early 2024, the ICHP Programme contributed 200,000 Euros toward the OSCE’s project to create a new national Heritage Crime Task Force in Ukraine. The project has 2 overarching objectives:
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To enhance the capacities of law enforcement organisations to combat illicit trafficking of cultural property and its direct linkages to organised crime and terrorism financing, money laundering and corruption networks.
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Ukraine enhances its national capacity to combat heritage crimes, cultural property trafficking and its capacity to prosecute perpetrators through the creation and direct training of a multi-agency, national heritage crime unit.
Victoria and Albert Museum Culture in Crisis Programme: capacity building for heritage professionals in the Caucasus
In April 2023, DCMS and the V&A signed a Memorandum of Understanding to support the preservation of cultural heritage in ODA eligible countries, with a focus on capacity building across heritage institutions in the Caucasus, promoting resilience against the threat posed by Russia.
Under this MoU, DCMS has contributed funding to 3 projects:
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A conference titled ‘Collaboration in Times of Crisis: Preserving Natural and Cultural Heritage’ at The Georgian National Museum (26-29 April 2023), delivered in collaboration with The Georgian National Museum, the Centre for Study and Promotion of Natural and Cultural Heritage of Georgia, the Rathgen Research Laboratory with the National Museums Berlin and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
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A 5-day training course (8-12 July 2024) for museum and heritage professionals in Tbilisi, Georgia, to develop Georgian heritage professionals’ understanding of emergency planning and develop robust salvage and emergency plans for their respective organisations specifically around natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes and risks and threats from conflict.
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The translation of the ICCROM First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis - Handbook (2018) and the ICCROM First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis - Toolkit (2018) from English to Armenian.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
In September 2024, the ICHP launched a programme with UNODC to strengthen investigation and prosecution capacities against cultural heritage trafficking linked to conflict zones in the Middle East. The project serves to:
- increase understanding and awareness among key Egyptian and Lebanese stakeholders to prevent and counter the dynamic of trafficking in cultural heritage linked to regional conflicts;
- improve follow-up investigation and prosecution capacities when it comes to cultural heritage trafficking in Egypt and Lebanon; and
- facilitate international cooperation in investigating and prosecuting cultural heritage trafficking with Egyptian and Lebanese stakeholders.
Read more on UNODC’s mandate on trafficking in cultural property.
UNESCO Civil-Military Regional Workshops on the Protection of Cultural Property
In October 2024, the ICHP funded UNESCO to deliver two sub-regional civil military workshops to enable the national armed forces and civilian authorities of both the Sahel and South America to master the relevant international legal obligations, in particular those stipulated in the 1954 Hague Convention and its two Protocols (1954 and 1999), with regard to the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict.
These lessons will be enriched by examples of military best practice applicable during the various phases of an emergency operation, with the aim that Armed Forces in the region establish permanent military units for the protection of cultural property as well as regular training organised by their Ministries of Defence.
Read more on UNESCO’s previous civil-military training in the Baltic region.
Culture conventions ratified by the UK
1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its Two Protocols (1954 & 1999) - Ratified in 2017
The UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property - Accepted in 2002
The 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage - Ratified in 1984
The 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage - Ratified in 2024
The 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions - Ratified in 2007
Links and guidance
UK Approach to Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict
Wilton Park, Cultural Heritage Protection, Development and Diplomacy: International Approaches
Institute of Development Studies. Lessons learned on cultural heritage protection in conflict and protracted crisis. Kelly, L. (2021). K4D Helpdesk Report. DOI: 10.19088/K4D.2021.068
UNESCO-UK
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1st Report: Biocultural Heritage: Linking Nature and Culture
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2nd Report: Bridging the Gaps: Cultural Heritage for Climate Action - the Brief Report
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Updates to this page
Published 27 July 2021Last updated 10 December 2024 + show all updates
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Added information on the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UNESCO Civil-Military Regional Workshops on the Protection of Cultural Property.
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Updated and refreshed page.
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Updated links
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First published.