The Inherent Human Right to Cultural Heritage Exploring its Significance

<p>In recent years global institutions like the UN and UNESCO have increasingly</p><p>treated obligations to preserve cultural heritage as obligations to uphold human rights.</p><p>Owing to the relative novelty of this approach little work has been done to see what</p><p>exactly such rights would be and how this treatment of cultural heritage could be</p><p>justified. Not only is it unclear what the foundations of a human right to cultural heritage</p><p>are or what precisely such a right ought to entail but it is equally uncertain what is meant</p><p>by cultural heritage in the first place. Considering this the aims of the Book are the</p><p>following: (i) provide a philosophically robust definition of cultural heritage and its social</p><p>value that could serve as a foundation of the human rights approach to cultural heritage;</p><p>(ii) building on this understanding of cultural heritage provide a systematic conceptual</p><p>analysis of obligations to preserve cultural heritage understood in the language of human</p><p>rights. The Book defends a constructionist-inspired account of cultural heritage</p><p>according to which cultural heritage is not primarily about historical objects and</p><p>practices but rather about how we employ such objects and practices to make sense of</p><p>our internal and external worlds both as individuals and as communities. Equipped with</p><p>this understanding of cultural heritage the Book provides a justification of a human right</p><p>to cultural heritage by appealing to the centrality of cultural heritage to our individual</p><p>normative agency. This is followed by a discussion of the limits of a human right to</p><p>cultural heritage where such limits are determined by its harmful uses. Lastly the Book</p><p>provides a discussion of legal duties that a human right to cultural heritage will generate</p><p>and briefly considers whose responsibility such duties are.</p>