and many other sites of religious or cultural significance. The Hague Convention of 1954 can be applied in principle, since Cambodia became a party to the Convention in 1962, before the Khmer Rouge came to power, and because Article 19 of the Convention stipulates that even in non-international armed conflicts, each party to the conflict is bound at least by the provisions on respect for cultural property. However, it is not yet known whether and to what extent trials will be instituted in the court which are based on the destruction of cultural property. A possible problem with the application of Article 7 and thus with the Hague Convention, is that it is a legal requirement to establish the existence of an armed conflict. This would then resemble the definition commonly used in international humanitarian law. Whether such an assessment of the Khmer Rouge dictatorship will be possible, cannot yet be predicted. Destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL Deliberate destruction and theft of cultural heritage has been conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant since 2014 in Iraq, Syria, and to a lesser extent in Libya. The destruction targets various places of worship under ISIL control and ancient historical artifacts. In Iraq, between the fall of Mosul in June 2014 and February 2015, ISIL has plundered and destroyed at least 28 historical religious buildings. The valuable items from some buildings were looted in order to smuggle and sell them to finance ISIL activities. Although Libya, Syria and Iraq ratified the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict in 1957, 1958 and 1967 respectively, it has not been effectively enforced. International acceptance and partnering organisations As of June 2018, 131 states have become party to the Hague Convention of 1954 and 109 states to the first protocol. 77 states have become party to the Second Protocol of 1999. Of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, France became a party in 1957. Russia is contracting party in legal succession of the Soviet Union, which also became party in 1957. the People's Republic of China ratified the convention in 2000 and the United States acceded in 2009. The United Kingdom signed the Agreement in 1954 and ratified the Convention and acceded to the Protocols in 2017. The main reason for the long period between signature and ratification by the