Heritage, Culture and Rights: Challenging Legal Discourses

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, as well as China's use of shipwreck sites and underwater cultural heritage to make territorial claims and the cultural identities of nations post-conflict highlight the field as an emerging global focus and stage for the configuration and contestation of cultural heritage, rights and the broader politics of international law. The tensions between heritage and human rights is explored in this volume in relation to heritage and rights in cooperation, in conflict, and as a tool for rights advocacy. This volume also explores these issues from a distinctively legal standpoint, considering, for instance, the extent to which the legal tools of international human rights law help or hinder heritage protection. Covering a range of issues across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and Australia, this volume is of interest to people working in human rights, heritage studies, cultural heritage management and identity politics around the world.

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.