Refugee Protection, Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage and Human Rights
Cultural heritage is integral to the definition of refugees, as such refugee protection should include safeguarding of refugee cultural heritage. The main international law instrument for refugee protection is the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the Protocol Relating to the Status...
Gardado en:
| Publicado en: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/socrep, |
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| Autor Principal: | |
| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
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Sociétés & représentations
2025
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| Acceso en liña: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | Cultural heritage is integral to the definition of refugees, as such refugee protection should include safeguarding of refugee cultural heritage. The main international law instrument for refugee protection is the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, parts of which are part of customary international law. Whereas international refugee law may not directly address cultural heritage, the interpretation of the Refugee Convention and Refugee Protocol must be in accordance with the ordinary meaning of their terms in their context and in light of their objects and purpose. The concept of “cultural” in heritage (or property) refers to qualifying criteria, such as historical or ethnographic. Arguably, the Refugee Convention and Refugee Protocol engage with refugee cultural heritage, including through the refugee definition. For instance, the persecution grounds in the refugee definition under the Refugee Convention are linked with the cultural heritage of refugees. A refugee is defined as a person with “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion”. Race has been interpreted to refer to “race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin”. Religion includes thought, conscience and religion as theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs. Nationality has been interpreted not only as national origin but also broadly to include origin and membership of particular ethnic, religious, cultural, and linguistic communities. Membership of a particular social group refers to “shared interests, values, or background”. Political opinion has also been broadly interpreted to incorporate opinion on any matter in which policy is engaged. The paper examines the engagement of the Refugee Convention and Refugee Protocol with refugee intangible cultural heritage and the extent to which such engagement creates tensions with other frameworks around cultural heritage and human rights, due to tensions embedded in different treatments of refugees as individuals or groups and the potential essentialisation of refugee identities. I conceptualise intangible cultural heritage to incorporate refugee relationships with their tangible cultural heritage. |
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