Part II Substantive Aspects, Ch.19 Cultural Heritage and Women

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Powderly Joseph ◽  
Silva Rafael Braga da
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Gender Issues ◽  
Women's Agency ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
Experiences Of Women ◽  
Made In

The women’s rights movement has secured important reforms aimed at realizing the promise of genuine equality and the universality of fundamental human rights norms. Giving substantive voice to the cultural rights of women has been an important feature of the discourse and has led to significant advances in recognizing the intersectionality of the forms of oppression experienced by women, the centrality of women’s agency in exercising their cultural rights, and the dangers of essentialized conceptions of the lived experiences of women. The chapter explores the extent to which gender issues are reflected in international cultural heritage instruments as well as in the practices and policy initiatives of UNESCO. It suggests that the advances made in the realization of women’s cultural rights have not yet been fully translated in the context of international cultural heritage law and practice.

The UN Security Council, the Human Rights Council, and the Protection of Cultural HeritageA Matter of Peace and Security, Human Rights, or Both?

2020 ◽  
pp. 202-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Hausler
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Human Rights Council ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Heritage Protection ◽  
Human Rights Violation ◽  
Two Bodies

The UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council have increasingly addressed the destruction of cultural heritage in recent years, reflecting an expanded focus on cultural heritage protection across the UN system. This chapter examines the approaches of these two bodies to cultural heritage destruction and explores how their approaches have mutually reinforced each other but also reflected their different mandates: international peace and security and international human rights, respectively. This chapter starts with an analysis of some of the key Human Rights Council resolutions on the matter, as well as the work of its special procedures, in particular the Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights. It then looks at the resolutions of the Security Council both to assess the manner in which the Security Council has introduced cultural heritage destruction to the peace and security agenda and also to identify whether the Security Council has additionally addressed such destruction as a human rights violation. The chapter concludes with discussion of whether a human rights approach to cultural heritage destruction should be adopted more widely.

Human Rights

2019 ◽  
pp. 123-141
Author(s):  
Hurst Hannum
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Western Values ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
Human Rights Norms

This chapter focuses on human rights in Asia and the Pacific. On the level of purely legal commitments, the great majority of Asian and Pacific states have ratified both of the two major UN human rights treaties, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is the most developed of the sub-regional organizations with respect to human rights, although that development has been fairly recent and, to date, relatively minimal. However, attempts to characterize or distinguish different approaches to human rights in Asia frequently include reference to a number of arguments put forward to justify Asian exceptionalism in this field. Perhaps the most widely asserted argument contends that ‘Asian values’ are different from the Western values that animate today’s international human rights norms.

scholarly journals Non-Universal Arguments under the European Convention on Human Rights

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-126
Author(s):  
Tilmann Altwicker
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Institutional Legitimacy ◽  
Difference Making ◽  
European Court ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
Made In

Abstract It is popular to view international human rights law as universal. In a normative sense, human rights universality refers to certain qualities of human rights norms. These qualities have long been under attack, most recently by what is called here human rights nationalism. The main point made in this article is that some of the criticism levelled against normative human rights universality can be accommodated through interpretation. To this end, non-universality of human rights is judicially created (argumentative non-universality). This article offers an analysis of argumentative non-universality in the context of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It shows that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) operationalizes argumentative non-universality through a conception of asymmetric protection, by using context as a difference-making fact and by allowing, in certain cases, for a decentralized interpretation of rights under the ECHR. As argued here, resorting to argumentative non-universality sometimes makes sense because non-universality takes seriously the fact that individual freedom is, to some extent, socially and politically conditioned. Furthermore, non-universality allows for reasonable interpretive pluralism, and it contributes to the institutional legitimacy of the ECtHR. In conclusion, the ECtHR is, rightly so, an ‘interpreter of universality’ (as quoted by Judge Pinto de Albuquerque) as it is an interpreter of the non-universality of convention rights.

Statement at the Regional Meeting for Asia for the World Conference on Human Rights

2018 ◽  
pp. 197-204
Author(s):  
L.M. Singhvi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
New World ◽  
World Order ◽  
Human Values ◽  
World Conference ◽  
New World Order ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Rights Norms

Dr Singhvi argues that Asia has shared cultural heritage going back to many centuries and rooted in basic human values which should inspire a passionate striving for peace and a compassionate commitment to human rights and human obligations. These values have a profound contemporary relevance and they have a significant and enduring contribution to make in advancing the cause of human dignity and happiness everywhere and in building a new world order. The Asian human rights perspective must reflect the universality of human rights norms as well as the particular perceptions and aspirations of Asia which is home to more than half the population of the world, states Dr Singhvi.

scholarly journals Dignifying, Restoring, and Reimagining International Law and Justice Through Connections with Arts and Culture

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 108-110
Author(s):  
Karima Bennoune
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
International Law ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Expressions ◽  
Law And Justice ◽  
The Right ◽  
Key Aspects

This symposium provides a critical opportunity for international legal scholars to engage with the value and power of certain aspects of culture. The successive holders of the UN mandate on cultural rights have declined to define culture, instead taking a holistic, inclusive approach to its meanings, including inter alia diverse forms of artistic and cultural expressions, languages, worldviews, practices, and cultural heritage. Cultural rights—including the right to take part in cultural life without discrimination, the right to access and enjoy cultural heritage, and freedom of artistic expression—are a core part of the universal human rights framework. They are vital in and of themselves and protect key aspects of the human experience, but they have also been increasingly recognized as important elements of accessing justice and responding to atrocities and as “fundamental to creating and maintaining peaceful and just societies and to promoting enjoyment of other universal human rights.” The artistic and cultural expressions which result from the exercise of these rights likewise have inherent value and can also play significant roles in achieving basic goals of international law and human rights. As I noted in a report to the UN Human Rights Council in my capacity as UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights:Humanity dignifies, restores and reimagines itself through creating, performing, preserving and revising its cultural and artistic life . . . . Cultural heritage, cultural practices and the arts are resources for marshalling attention to urgent concerns, addressing conflicts, reconciling former enemies, resisting oppression, memorializing the past, and imagining and giving substance to a more rights-friendly future.

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