This article discusses the role of international law in the protection of the Muaro Jambi Temple site as a cultural place. In specific, the authors highlight the regulations to use distinctive signs for historical and cultural property under the International Humanitarian Law. Even though all Contracting Members should comply with the law, in reality, not all the rules are implemented, such as in Muaro Jambi Temple site. A site is a principal object that passes the historical value of human being as well as scientific information from generation to generation; therefore, is required protection. Using a normative juridical approach, the article analyses the basic problems for not applying distinctive signs at the Muaro Jambi Temple site. A. Introduction The cultural object is a world heritage. It resembles the development of human being; therefore, is needed protection from the international world-relics of cultural object pass historical value and scientific information from generation to generation. Obliteration of the object would mean the destruction of civilization and the key source to unravel the chain of human life. There are two types of cultural heritage; they are intangible and tangible cultural heritage. Intangible cultural heritage refers to all kind of practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills, tools, objects artefacts, and cultural spaces that are admitted as cultural heritage by a group of people or community. For example are art performance, tradition handcraft, verbal expression and tradition, customs, rites and celebration, and knowledge of the universe. Meanwhile, tangible cultural heritage is cultural objects, property, human-made infrastructures or natural objects that have given cultural value for the user such as temple, castle, natural site, of other cultural landscape. 1 Preservation and protection should be given to tangible cultural objects, which are pre-historical and historical relics such as buildings, sites, statues, temples, and other historical or archaeological objects. This is in line with Article 1 (1) of Law Number 11 of 2011 on Cultural Object, which states that: Cagar budaya adalah warisan budaya bersifat kebendaan berupa benda cagar budaya. Bangunan cagar budaya, struktur cagar budaya, situs cagar budaya, dan kawasan cagar budaya di daratdan/atau di air yang perlu dilestarikan keberadaannya karena memiliki nilai penting bagi sejarah, pengetahuan, pendidikan, agama, dan/atau kebudayaan melalui proses penetapan (Cultural 1 https://kebudayaan.kemdikbud.go.id/ditwdb/menuju-warisan-budaya-dunia-proses-penetapan-warisan-budaya-tak-bendaintangible-cultural-heritage-dan-warisan-dunia-world-heritage-indonesia-oleh-unesco/, Accessed on December 1, 2019.