Dr Joris D. Kila holds degrees in art history and classical archaeology from Leiden University and a PhD in cultural sciences from the University of Amsterdam. He is a member of the US COCOM Cultural Historical Action Group, adviser of Blue Shield and chairman of the International Cultural Resources Working Group for which he undertook cultural emergency missions to Egypt, Libya and Mali. He is editor in chief of the book series 'Heritage and Identity' (Brill) and author of many publications on cultural property protection in times of armed conflict. He received the ARCA Award for Art Protection and Security in 2012 and the Blue Shield ''Preis'' 2012 for his book 'Heritage under Siege'.
Mr Karl Von Habsburg is the President of the Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield. He is also a Cultural Property Protection Officer, first with the staff of the Military Command of Salzburg, later with the Austrian Armed Forces High Command and Staff College. He obtained a law degree from the University of Salzburg and an LLM and MBA at IMADEC University, Vienna. He was a member of the European Parliament from 1996 – 1999 and the Director-General of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization from 2002-2003. He is a member of the editorial board of the peer reviewed series 'Heritage and Identity' and the author of 'Introduction, in 'Cultural Heritage in the Crosshairs' (eds. Joris Kila and Jim Zeidler) Leiden 2013.