Taking a Human Rights Approach to Cultural Heritage Protection

The linkage between human rights and cultural heritage law is of great importance, but it has not been sufficiently examined in the literature, particularly by human rights specialists. There are obviously several elements and characteristics of cultural heritage that have strong human rights dimensions (negative as well as positive), in particular its role in cultural identity formation and affirmation, its relationship to the tricky notion of cultural diversity, the problem of cultural traditions or practices that contravene human rights standards, and the potential of heritage to exclude and serve as the vehicle for expressing social and political tensions. It is essential to understand some fundamental characteristics of human rights as well as certain theoretical challenges that cultural heritage evokes, such as relativist positions and claims for collective rights. Cultural rights, although important, are not the sole human rights applicable to the protection of cultural heritage, and we need to judge the content and performance of existing international cultural heritage instruments against all the relevant human rights. Although recent cultural heritage law-making has responded increasingly to human rights requirements, its soft law character and the strong reservation of State sovereignty are limiting factors; hence, human rights can directly influence cultural heritage protection if well understood and applied.