THE CONSERVATION AND PROMOTION OF THE 'CULTURAL HERITAGE OF MANKIND': WHICH OBLIGATIONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW?

The research consists in an international law-based analysis which, focusing on the issue of determining the obligations set up, notably, by the United Nations, towards the protection of the ‘cultural heritage of mankind’ pending on the international community, approaches the enhancement of the human right to culture in an intergenerational and sustainable-led perspective. In detail, the research consists in a study of the current international framework for the worldwide protection of cultural heritage put in place, notably, under the aegis of UNESCO, and applicable to States Parties both in peace time and in war. In this sense, the research tries, first of all, to reconstruct the existing international norm set established, notably, by United Nations and UNESCO, for the international protection of the cultural heritage of peoples, thereby focusing on the analysis of the obligations pending on the international community according to such a norm set. In this view, the analysis aims at the study of the scope and features of such existing duties pending on States Parties with regard to the protection of the world’s cultural goods and sites according to UNESCO both in peace time and in war, focusing, notably, on the provisions of the UNESCO 1954 Hague Convention and of the UNESCO 1972 World Heritage Convention. In particular, the research concentrates on the international framework established by the global community for the worldwide protection of cultural heritage possibly endangered in times of peace, and, notably, by intentional destruction – this, even more, in view of the several recent episodes of ‘iconoclastic propaganda’ which have been occurring, since the first decade of 2000s, in many areas of the globe. In line with the interdisciplinary approach at the core of the Ph.D. Programme, the above-mentioned current UNESCO framework is approached through the means of an integrated perspective, and, notably, through the lens of anthropological studies – and, in particular, of legal anthropology and cultural anthropology. Coming up, as the result of the analysis, with an overview on the current scope and features, as well as of the remarkable existing discrepancies and intrinsic shortcomings, currently entailed within the UNESCO norm-set for cultural heritage protection in peacetime, the study identifies as its core objective the possible identification of feasible solutions to cope with such current normative aporia. In this sense, the work shifts to the study of the human rights framework for the protection of cultural rights, approached, in this context, in an intergenerational perspective. In this view, the research focuses on the significance of ensuring adequate international protection to cultural heritage as a component of the human right to culture, pursuant to art. 15 para. 1 lett. a) of the ICESCR and to the provisions of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (“CESCR”) General Comment No. 21. Furthermore, the question is approached in an intergenerational perspective: referring to the United Nations framework put in place for the enhancement of sustainable development, notably according to the General Assembly United Nations 2030 Agenda and, even more, to the progressively developing UNESCO norm-set for cultural heritage and sustainability, the work tackles the issue of the necessity of preserving and safeguarding from damage and destruction the cultural heritage of peoples in order to transmit it intact to future generations, in the name of their right to have access to it as an intrinsic element of their human dignity and well-being.