The International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS) was founded in 1996 "to work to protect the world's cultural heritage threatened by wars and natural disasters". It has been described as the "Cultural Red Cross", and its name derives from the usage of the blue shield as specified in the 1954 Hague Convention on Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflict.
The ICBS consists of representatives from five organizations:
- International Council on Archives
- International Council of Museums
- International Council on Monuments and Sites
- International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
- Co-ordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations
Since January 2009, the president of ICBS has been Julien Anfruns, who is also director general of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). Furthermore, since the establishment of the Blue Shield, a number of National Blue Shield Committees have been formed in various countries, leading to the December 2008 establishment of the Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield (ANCBS). Since December 2008, the president of the ANCBS has been Karl von Habsburg.
Famous quotes containing the words committee, blue and/or shield:
“A committee is an animal with four back legs.”
—John le Carré (b. 1931)
“There were ghosts that returned to earth to hear his phrases,
As he sat there reading, aloud, the great blue tabulae.
They were those from the wilderness of stars that had expected more.
There were those that returned to hear him read from the poem of life,
Of the pans above the stove, the pots on the table, the tulips among them.
They were those that would have wept to step barefoot into reality....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Vice is its own reward. It is virtue which, if it is to be marketed with consumer appeal, must carry Green Shield stamps.”
—Quentin Crisp (b. 1908)