IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 795 
Supporting the commitment of the United States to lawfully protect 
international cultural sites. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 14, 2020 
Mr. ENGEL (for himself and Mr. RYAN) submitted the following resolution; 
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Supporting the commitment of the United States to lawfully 
protect international cultural sites. 
Whereas President Trump threatened to strike locations in 
Iran that are ‘‘at a very high level & important to Iran 
& the Iranian culture’’; 
Whereas the United States has a proud history of protecting 
and avoiding intentional damage to and destruction of 
sites of historical and cultural significance, even and es-
pecially in times of armed conflict; 
Whereas President Abraham Lincoln’s Lieber Code of 1863 
expresses that cultural property should be protected in 
times of armed conflict; 
Whereas, during World War II, Supreme Allied Commander 
Dwight D. Eisenhower issued an order that military 
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•HRES 795 IH 
forces are bound to respect historical monuments so far 
as war allows; 
Whereas, following World War II, the 1954 Hague Conven-
tion for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event 
of Armed Conflict (‘‘Hague Convention’’), to which the 
United States is a party, requires that State Parties re-
frain from any act directed by way of reprisals against 
cultural property and solidified the principle that cultural 
property should not be targeted during conflict except in 
cases of imperative military necessity; 
Whereas, the most recent Department of Defense Law of 
War Manual, revised in 2016, specifically prohibits ‘‘acts 
of hostility . . . directed against cultural property’’ in 
the absence of imperative military necessity; 
Whereas, in 2004, the United Nations International Criminal 
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted those re-
sponsible for the intentional shelling of the Old City of 
Dubrovnik in Croatia, a World Heritage Site; 
Whereas the Protect and Preserve International Cultural 
Property Act (Public Law 114–151) advanced the protec-
tion of cultural property at risk from conflicts in Syria 
and elsewhere and established an interagency Cultural 
Heritage Coordinating Committee at the U.S. Depart-
ment of State; 
Whereas, in 2017, the United Nations Security Council con-
demned the unlawful destruction of cultural property in 
Resolution 2347, a resolution for which the United States 
voted, and affirmed that directing unlawful attacks 
against cultural sites and buildings may constitute a war 
crime; 
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Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural 
Property in the Event of Armed Conflict; and 
(3) the President should not order the United 
States military or other government agencies or em-
ployees to commit war crimes or other violations of 
the international law of armed conflict or threaten to 
do so. 
Æ 
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