Intangible cultural heritage: The living culture of peoples

European Journal of International Law

Volumn 22, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 101-120

  Lenzerini, Federico ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SIENA   (Italy)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 79954540116     PISSN: 09385428     EISSN: 14643596     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/ejil/chr006     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. See R. Williams, Border County (1960), at 11.
2. See, in particular, the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, 249 UNTS 240, and its two Protocols, respectively of 1954 (249 UNTS 358) and 1999 (38 ILM 769).
3. See, in particular, the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (World Heritage Convention), 1037 UNTS 151.
4. See International Conference, 'Globalization and Intangible Cultural Heritage', Tokyo, Japan, 24-26 August [2004,] available at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001400/140090e.pdf (last accessed 6 Oct. 2010), at 49, 51.
5. Adopted by the UNESCO General Conference on 2 Nov. 2001. The text of the Declaration is available at: http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13179&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html (last accessed 6 Oct. 2010).
6. See UNESCO, 'Brief history of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003)', available at: www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?pg=00007 (last accessed 28 Mar. 2010).
7. 943 UNTS 178.
8. See Soós, 'Communities and the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) - a New Tool for Development', in ARCADE, Culture as a Tool for Development. Challenges of Analysis and Action (2009), available at: http://arcade.acted.org/images/arcade_livre_et_couv_BD.pdf (last accessed 18 Dec. 2010), at 29, 34.
9. See Kurin, 'Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage: Key Factors in Implementing the 2003 Convention', 2 Int'l J Intangible Heritage (2007) 9, at 10.
10. See UNESCO, Declaration on Cultural Policies, World Conference on Cultural Policies, Mexico City, 26 July-6 Aug. 1982, available at: http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/files/12762/11295421661mexico_en.pdf/mexico_en.pdf (last accessed 6 Oct. 2010), at 6th preambular para.
11. The text of the Recommendation is available at: http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13141&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html (last accessed 6 Oct. 2010).
12. For a more comprehensive assessment of such initiatives see Francioni, 'The Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage: A New Challenge for UNESCO and International Law', in Various Authors, Symposium: The Transmission and Present State of Cultural Heritage (2002), at 68, 69 ff.
13. See www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?pg=00061&lg=EN (last accessed 6 Oct. 2010).
14. See J. Pérez de Cuéllar et al., Our Creative Diversity (1996), available at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001055/105586e.pdf (last accessed 6 Oct. 2010), at 31.
15. See 'The oral heritage of humanity', Res. No. 23 of 12 Nov. 1997.
16. See Dec. 155 EX/3.5.5, UNESCO, Executive Board, 155th Session, Decisions adopted by the Executive Board at its 155th Session, Doc. 155 EX/Decisions of 3 Dec. 1998, available at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001142/114238e.pdf [Last accessed 15 January 2011], at 8.
17. Adopted by the UNESCO General Conference on 17 Oct. 2003; the full text of the Convention is available at: http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=17716&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html (last accessed 6 Oct. 2010).
18. The meeting took place in Grinzane Cavour, Turin, Italy, from 14 to 17 Mar. 2001. The definition in point reads as follows: 'peoples' learned processes along with the knowledge, skills and creativity that inform and are developed by them, the products they create, and the resources, spaces and other aspects of social and natural context necessary to their sustainability; these processes provide living communities with a sense of continuity with previous generations and are important to cultural identity, as well as to the safeguarding of cultural diversity and creativity of humanity' (document on file with the author).
19. See infra, sect. 3.
20. Document on file with the author.
21. See www.unesco.org/bpi/intangible_heritage/backgrounde.htm (last accessed 6 Oct.r 2010).
22. Available at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001246/124628eo.pdf (last accessed 6 Oct. 2010).
23. See http://portal.unesco.org/la/convention.asp?language=E&KO=17116 (last accessed 2 Feb. 2011).
24. During the Second Meeting of Experts appointed by UNESCO for the preparation of the draft text of the CSICH, held in Rio de Janeiro on 22-25 Jan. 2002, the present writer expressed the idea that, due to the intrinsic nature of intangible cultural heritage, the (then) forthcoming convention should not have adopted the scheme of the World Heritage Convention based on lists, but a model which would allow the protection of any manifestation of intangible heritage on the basis of the self-identification of the communities concerned.
25. However, this idea, which was shared by the majority of the other experts, did not allay the political concerns of several state representatives during the phase of the negotiations of intergovernmental meetings: see International Meeting of Experts, Intangible Cultural Heritage: Priority Domains for an International Convention, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 22-24 Jan. 2002, Final Report, available at: www.unesco.org/culture/ich/doc/src/00074-EN.pdf (last accessed 18 Dec. 2010), at 8.
26. See J. Blake, Commentary on the UNESCO 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2006), at 79.
27. See Art. 16(1) CSICH.
28. See Art. 12, which states that '[t]he fact that a property belonging to the cultural or natural heritage has not been included in either of the two lists mentioned in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Art. 11 shall in no way be construed to mean that it does not have an outstanding universal value for purposes other than those resulting from inclusion in these lists'.
29. See Lenzerini, 'Article 12. Protection of Properties Not Inscribed on the World Heritage List', in F. Francioni, with F. Lenzerini (eds.), The World Heritage Convention. A Commentary (2008), at 201 ff.
30. The full text of the Operational Directives is available at: www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00026 (last accessed 18 December 2010).
31. UN GA Res. 217A (III), 1948, UN Doc. A/810 (1948).
32. [999] UNTS 171.
33. See Human Rights Committee, General Comment 22, Art. 18 (Forty-eighth session, 1993), UN Doc. HRI\GEN\1\Rev.1 at 35 (1994), para. 4 (emphasis added).
34. See General Comment 23, Article 27 (Fiftieth session, 1994), UN Doc. HRI\GEN\1\Rev.1 at 38 (1994), para. 6.2.
35. UN GA Res. 44/25 (1989).
36. See Human Rights Committee, General Comment 3, Article 2 - Implementation at the national level (Thirteenth session, 1981), UN Doc. HRI\GEN\1\Rev. 1 at 4 (1994), para. 1.
37. OAS Treaty Series No. 36.
38. See Case of Moiwana Village v. Suriname, Series C No. 124, Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs, judgment of 15 June 2005, available at: www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_124_ing.pdf (last accessed 6 Oct. 2010), at paras 98ff.
39. See Separate Opinion of Judge Cançado Trindade, at para. 92.
40. See Case of Moiwana Village v. Suriname, Series C No. 145, Interpretation of the Judgment of Merits, Reparations and Costs, judgment of 8 Feb. 2006, available at www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_145_ing.pdf (last accessed 6 October 2010).
41. 993 UNTS 3.
42. See General Comment No. 14 (2000), 'The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)', UN Doc. E/C.12/2000/4 of 11 Aug. 2000, at para. 27.
43. On the topic of cultural diversity see Lenzerini, 'Riflessioni sul valore della diversità culturale nel diritto internazionale', 56 Comunità Internazionale (2001) 671.
44. See Brown, 'Safeguarding the Intangible', Cultural Comment, Nov. 2003, available at: www.culturalpolicy.org/commons/comment-print.cfm?ID=12 (last accessed 13 May 2010).