Cultural Relations Among States: is a Legal Adaptation Required?
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Abstract
Cultural rights are an integral part of human rights. According to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 15), the latter include the right to take part in cultural life, to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and to benefit from the results of any scientific, literary or artistic production.
In order to promote the cultural dimension of human rights, cultural relations among States represent an important tool since they foster initiatives in different sectors (i.e., cinema, literature, music, design, fashion), thereby giving people a better chance to enjoy and develop cultural rights.
This essay will highlight the importance of properly defining and regulating cultural relations among States through an adaptation of international law, which currently lacks any provision on the issue. Although some international instruments mention cultural relations, they never provide a comprehensive legal framework for their development: The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) merely acknowledges the existence of “cultural relations”; while the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005) aims to encourage dialogue among cultures (art. 1), but never refers to cultural relations.
In order to fill this legal gap, this article will first examine some international tools connected with cultural relations. Secondly, it will consider the possibility to adopt a new Convention or act of soft law to define their core principles and values.
The overarching argument will hold that an adaptation of international law would help guarantee that the overall outcomes of cultural relations are greater connectivity, better mutual understanding, and enhanced sustainable dialogue between states, people and non-state actors, thereby significantly promoting a human rights-based approach to culture.
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References
Interpreted as a complex process that is divided into three parts: the recognition of the innate rights of individuals and human communities within instruments of international law; the functioning of a special international guarantee system; and international politics which has as its object the position of legal norms and the setting up of permanent guarantee apparatuses and which involves, as a significant actors, states, intergovernmental organizations and international non-governmental organizations. Regarding the theme, see Marco Mascia, L’internazionalizzazione dei diritti dell’infanzia (CEDAM, 1990), 67-76.
For example, the Organization of American States (OAS) with its American Convention on Human Rights signed in 1969; the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950; and the African Union with the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights of 1981.
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He was an Egyptian politician and diplomat, sixth secretary general of the United Nations from 1992 to 1996.
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See de definition given by British Council and Goethe-Institut, cited at p. 1.