2391-7997 The Unrecognized Genocide – Rethinking the Legal Framework for the Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Ukraine and Gaza Wierczyńska Karolina author Instytut Nauk Prawnych Polskiej Akademii Nauk Correspondence to: Karolina Wierczyńska k.wierczynska@inp.pan.pl 11 12 2025 2/2025 (11) 2025 57 82 Copyright © 2025 2025 This article is part of the research project titled “In search of justice for core crimes in the digital age” (2023/49/B/HS5/02623), funded by the National Science Centre of Poland. The deliberate destruction of cultural heritage has emerged as a recurring and emblematic feature of modern armed conflicts, revealing profound deficiencies in the international legal framework. From the devastation of Dubrovnik and the Mostar Bridge during the war in former Yugoslavia to the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan and the attacks on monuments and sites in Mali, Iraq, and Syria, such acts target the material embodiments of identity, history, and collective memory. Although cultural heritage – now understood to encompass both tangible and intangible dimensions of human expression – enjoys nominal protection under a wide range of international instruments, including the 1954 Hague Convention, the World Heritage Convention, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, these regimes have proven insufficient in practice. The ongoing destruction of cultural sites in Ukraine and Gaza exposes a fundamental lacuna in international law: the absence of the concept of <em>cultural genocide</em> from the Genocide Convention (1948). This exclusion, rooted in the <em>travaux préparatoires</em>, prevents the recognition of systematic cultural destruction as an autonomous international crime, limiting accountability to war crimes or crimes against humanity. This article critically examines this normative omission through an analysis of relevant treaty provisions, jurisprudence, and state practice. It argues that the eradication of cultural heritage constitutes a distinct assault on a group’s existence and continuity, and thus merits recognition within the legal framework of genocide. 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