The legal protection and accompanying discourse surrounding cultural heritage in international law has undergone several shifts: its protection has developed from armed conflict to peacetime, from cultural property to cultural and natural heritage, from the tangible to the intangible, and from the perception of its destruction as a “the destruction of stones” to a recognition that the direct victims are people(s). More recently, the state centricity of cultural heritage law has come under scrutiny. The discourse—and to a certain extent the legal framework—has acknowledged the importance and participation of communities, groups, and in some cases, individuals in international cultural heritage law.