INTERNATIONAL JUDICIAL ASSISTENCE REGARDING PROTECTION OF CULTURAL ASSETS IN ARMED CONFLICTS

Among numerous unfortunate consequences that armed conflicts produce, the destruction of cultural assets does not represent a secondary and unimportant outcome by comparison to others because these assets add value to a certain people emphasizing aspects of its life and history. Unfortunately, in some circumstances, these assets are destroyed subsequently to other targets of armed operations. The recognized importance of these assets imposed the enactment of international conventions that have as main purpose the preservation of cultural assets against the effects of an armed conflict. Following this approach, the efforts of states are not confined only to steps taken and means used to preserve the cultural assets but they envisage the international co-operation. Protocol No.2 at the Convention from Hague in 1954 concerning the protection of cultural assets in case of armed conflicts, regulates in art. 15 the actions qualified as crimes as a result of the infringement of the Protocol, settling, at the same time, rules regarding the international judicial assistance, criminal prosecution and extradition. The Protocol focuses on the fact that international judicial assistance in criminal matters represents one of the most important methods of co-operation with a view to punishment of the actions regulated in art. 15 between states.