Opening of the exhibition
Race and Forest
Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Biennale Warszawa and INTERPRT invite you to the discussion "Race and Forest".
In 1947, as part of the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC), Poland brought charges of war crimes against eleven Germans for the destruction of Polish forests. Prosecutors accused chiefs of forestry departments of the General Government in occupied Poland (1939-1945) of conscious devastation of Polish forests in order to supply timber for German war efforts, while at the same time taking measures to conserve their own forests – prima facie a war crime under article 55 of the 1907 Hague Convention. Case no. 1307/7150, as it was filed in the UNWCC, sets one of the earliest precedences of prosecution based upon environment destruction at the time of the birth of modern international law after the end of the Second World War.
"Race and Forest" is part of INTERPRT’s broader research on the visual and material culture of spatial, scientific, media and documentary evidence from Nuremberg to the creation of the International Criminal Court that has helped shape different initiatives, experiences and positions of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) where it intersects the legal protection of the environment.
