After ISIS established its “Caliphate” in Mosul in 2014, it intentionally destroyed cultural heritage across Iraq’s Nineveh Plain. When Mosul was liberated in 2017, international cultural organizations offered salvage and stabilization assistance. Faced with scenes of war crimes under the 1954 Hague Convention on cultural property protection, professionals realized they also had to document the destruction properly or risk causing future court cases to fail.
Corine Wegener will describe the development of Mosul Museum Project Zero, which collects evidence of destruction at the museum for use in a possible war crimes trial. Wegener is director of the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative and a board member of the US Committee of the Blue Shield. She is a retired US Army Reserve major and served as a Civil Affairs Arts, Monuments, and Archives Officer in Iraq in 2003-2004.
The event is co-organized by the Armed Conflict and Civilian Protection Initiative and the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World, and co-sponsored by the Human Rights Program and HLS Advocates.
Food will be served.