The Recognition of the Right to Cultural Identity under (and beyond) international Human Rights law

Abstract

After summarising the range of reflections by legal scholars on Cultural Rights, this article scrutinises the principle interpretations of the right to take part in cultural life – by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Due to the evolving interpretations adopted, these bodies have come to define both a right to cultural identity and a right to cultural heritage that is both nuanced and direct. Moreover, they open the door to more extensive attempts at defining customary state obligations, for instance, to respect cultural heritage as recently demonstrated by the decision of the International Criminal Court in the well-known Prosecutor v. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi case (2016). This article underlines the importance of this ruling in identifying the human dimension to cultural heritage. It established that the human perspective of  cultural heritage is not a prerogative of human rights bodies only, but is beginning to be recognised and valued by other international agencies and organs.