Heritage, Culture and Rights: Challenging Legal Discourses

by Andrea Durbach, Lucas Lixinski

Overview

Cultural heritage law and its response to human rights principles and practice has gained renewed prominence on the international agenda. The recent conflicts in Syria and Mali, China's use of shipwreck sites and underwater cultural heritage to make territorial claims, and the cultural identities of nations post-conflict highlight this field as an emerging global focus. In addition, it has become a forum for the configuration and contestation of cultural heritage, rights and the broader politics of international law.

The manifestation of tensions between heritage and human rights are explored in this volume, in particular in relation to heritage and rights in collaboration and in conflict, and heritage as a tool for rights advocacy. This volume also explores these issues from a distinctively legal standpoint, considering the extent to which the legal tools of international human rights law facilitate or hinder heritage protection. Covering a range of issues across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and Australia, this volume will be of interest to people working in human rights, heritage studies, cultural heritage management and identity politics around the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781509932214
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/19/2019
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Andrea Durbach is Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales and Director of the Australian Human Rights Centre.
Lucas Lixinski is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales and a Project Director at the Australian Human Rights Centre.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Andrea Durbach and Lucas Lixinski
Part 1: Human Rights and Heritage: A Possible Alliance?
1. Opening the Toolbox of International Human Rights Law in the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage
Francesco Francioni and Lucas Lixinski
2. Culture, Rights and the Post-2015 Development Agenda
Ben Boer
3. Cultural Heritage, Human Rights and the Privatisation of War
Ana Filipa Vrdoljak
4. The Urban Village and the Megaproject: Linking Vernacular Urban Heritage and Human Rights-based Development in the Emerging Megacities of Southeast Asia
Scott Hawken
Part 2: Heritage in Tension with Rights 5. Between Rights in the City and the Right to the City: Heritage,
Character and Public Participation in Urban Planning
Amelia Thorpe
6. The Tension between Rights and Cultural Heritage Protection in China
Stefan Gruber
7. Heritage and Human Rights: Reframing the Conservation Ethic
Josephine Gillespie
8. The Poverty of World Heritage Management in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Legacy of Colonialism
and Disregard of Human Rights
Folarin Shyllon
Part 3: Heritage as a Tool for Broader Political Transformation 9. Cultural Heritage as Transformation: A Study of Four Sites from Post-Apartheid South Africa
Andrea Durbach
10. Heritage Listing as Self-determination
Lucas Lixinski
11. World Heritage, Cultural Confl icts and Political Reconciliation
Andrzej Jakubowski

Editorial Reviews

It is explicitly a volume about “challenging legal discourses” and, as such, presents a timely contribution that sheds light on this particular angle of the link between heritage, culture, and rights. Overall, it is an interesting and accessible volume for anyone with an interest in heritage and rights, and a legal background is not strictly necessary.” —Anne-Laura Kraak, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia, International Jourbanal of Cultural Property

“Overall, this volume highlights some of the challenges and questions that arise when examining the intersection of human rights law and cultural heritage, including the challenge to marry the different values ascribed to cultural heritage. Moreover, the book provides yet another recognition of the need for an interdisciplinary approach to the research of cultural heritage protection and preservation. The authors present a thoughtful overview of core themes, providing an excellent introduction to this field of study in a clear and readable manner. This book is therefore highly recommended for practitioners and students alike.” —Emiline Smith, Law and Society Review

“This compilation brings hard questions about culture, cultural heritage and society into better focus... The scholarship demonstrated here deserves a strong recommendation for making more explicit the link between cultural heritage provision and human rights. Heightened awareness of the connection and its darker side makes it easier to develop international standards to advance rights relating to cultural heritage. If the restorative and transformative dimensions of cultural heritage for society can be kept in view, as this work does, change may start to happen.” —Christa Roodt, University of Glasgow, International Jourbanal of Heritage Studies

“Heritage, Culture and Rights possesses the kind of academic breadth of vision that indicates that it is destined to become a classic book in its category. The growing acknowledgement of the importance of local and global questions emerging at the intersection of heritage studies, human rights and the development agenda ensures the future importance of a work that seeks to bridge the gap between disciplinary 'silos' and build a constructive dialogue between disciplines, values and stakeholders.” —Gabriele D'amico Soggetti, Freie Universitat, Australian Jourbanal of Human Rights

From the Publisher