Cultural Heritage and Accountability in Ukraine - Ana Vrodljak and Mayee Warren

This episode starts a series of podcasts analysing accountability in the current Ukrainian conflict. 

In this first episode, we are joined by Ana Filipa Vrodljak, the UNESCO Chair on International Law and Cultural Heritage, and Professor of Law at UTS, and Mayee Warren – a senior practitioner in the management of international criminal trials - to talk about the challenges presented in collecting and collating evidence of breaches of international law in Ukraine. In particular, we are going to focus on how the law protects objects of special cultural significance, what accountability measures exist when those objects are damaged in armed conflict, and then talk about how technology can assist in bringing perpetrators of these crimes to account.

Professor Ana Filipa Vrodljak has authored numerous books on International Law and Cultural Objects and Cultural Heritage; as well as the Oxford Commentary on the 1970 UNESCO and 1995 UNIDROIT Conventions. Among her many other appointments, she is a General Editor of the Oxford Commentaries on International Cultural Heritage Law and book series entitled Cultural Heritage Law and Policy; President of the International Cultural Property Society and on the Management Committee, International Journal of Cultural Property.

Mayee Warren has decades of experience as a senior executive in the Office of the Prosecutor of several international judicial mechanisms – from Rwanda, Sierra-Leone. The ICC, the War Crimes Court for Bosnia-Herzegovina, the ECCC – there is barely an international criminal justice mechanism Mayee hasn’t been involved with.  She is notionally retired, but is still consulting on legal and judicial projects including Organisational Development Adviser to the Office of the Attorney-General in Somaliland, Organisational Transformation and Change Management Consultant to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions under the joint EU and UN Office on Drugs and Crimes'  Criminal Justice Sector Reform program in East Africa and is engaged at UTS with teaching and program management of Global Accountability Projects, as well as providing advise to Ana in her UNESCO role.

Edited by Rosie Cavdarski.

Additional Resources 

• Ana Filipa Vrdoljak and Francesco Francioni (eds), The Oxford Handbook of International Cultural Heritage Law  (Oxford University Press, 2020).
• Ana Filipa Vrdoljak and Francesco Francioni  (eds), Cultural Heritage Law and Policy (Oxford University press, 2013)
• ICC OTP, Lessons Learned Report.
• Read about the ICC OTP’s Policy of Cultural Heritage.
• Learn more about the Mali and Timbuktu prosecutions before the ICC. 
• Alexandre Skander Galand, 'A Special Justice Mechanism for the Crime of Aggression Against Ukraine – For Who, By Who, Against Who?' Opinio juris (9 May 2022)
• Generally: International Law Blog