SUBRAMANIAN KRISHNAN MANI
non- party status has relevance only with regard to the role of UNESCO in procedural implementation of the treaty 25.
The general treaty law relating to cultural property is embodied in the UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, 1972, to which Afghanistan became a party in 1979 26. The purpose of this treaty was to recognise that all countries have an obligation to protect the“ cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value” and that to that end there was a need to evolve a cooperative international framework to make resources available to countries where the property is situated. The treaty defines“ cultural heritage” in terms of“ monuments”,“ groups of buildings”, or“ sites”. Cultural heritage“ monuments” would encompass“ architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, elements or structures of an archaeological nature, inscriptions, cavedwellings and combinations of features, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science.”( Article 1: similar definitions follow in the same provision on“ groups of buildings”, and“ sites”). Article 4 of the treaty imposes on each state party“ the duty of ensuring the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations of the cultural and natural heritage... situated on its territory.”
While it is the primary duty of each state party in whose territory the heritage is situated, the treaty also recognises“ the duty of the international community as a whole”, to cooperate and assist the former if called upon( Article 6). Thus, India was merely seeking to perform its part of the duty under the treaty, when it offered to take over the Afghan heritage treasures and bring them to India, an offer that the Taliban rejected outright. Afghanistan has already been a recipient of international assistance in this regard 27.
How does one enforce the law against the Taliban? Here is a case of a nearly decade-long armed conflict with a mix of terrorism, both domestic and international, and international arms and drug
25
Ibid.
26
Warikoo K., Bamiyan: Challenge to World Heritage, Pentagon Press, 2004, p. 130. 27 Mani V. S, op. cit.
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