Peoples’ heritage or States’ heritage? Sovereignty in the UNESCO mechanism for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Authors

  • Aliki Gkana National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5102/rdi.v17i3.7192

Keywords:

Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO, Safeguarding, Sovereignty, International Law of Culture, Transboundary Cultural Heritage Manifestations, Cultural Human Rights

Abstract

The paper explores the relation between State sovereignty and the safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (hereafter ICH) pointing out the tension between a State-centered and a community-oriented approach within the existent protection mechanism. In the first part, the writer outlines the legal framework established by the 2003 UNESCO Convention, examining some of its “sovereignty guarantees”. In the second part, she touches upon the particular issue of dealing with “shared ICH” within the UNESCO framework, examining possible responses to the apparent deficiencies towards its more effective safeguarding. Questioning whether ICH is an appropriate field for States to “reaffirm” their sovereignty or it intrinsically challenges the traditional concept of the sovereign State, she discusses the recognition of ICH’s cross-border character and the common concern for its safeguarding, as well as the progressive establishment of a right to ICH and the demand for a more active role of its communities in the international safeguarding system, as crucial parameters. How could international law adapt to those challenges and with what cost for sovereignty? The paper was presented in the Agora “Culture As or Against Sovereignty” convened by the Interest Group on International Law of Culture as a contribution to the 2019 ESIL Conference.

Author Biography

  • Aliki Gkana, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
    Aliki Gkana holds an LL.B. (Honours) and an LL.M. in Public International Law (with distinction) from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, while she was granted an excellence award as the first in rank graduate of Law Faculty’s United Programme of Postgraduate Studies for the academic year 2016-2017. Her research, as a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens and a scholar of the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (2019-2022), the Melina Merkouri Foundation and the Sylff Association (2018-2019), focuses on the protection of intangible cultural heritage under public international law. In 2020, she worked as an intern at the Living Heritage Entity, Culture Sector at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, partially in the context of the Erasmus+ traineeship programme. Researcher of the Athens PIL Center, she has collaborated with the University of Athens as a teaching and research assistant at the LL.M. in International and European Studies (direction of Public International Law) and completed an internship at the Protection Unit of UNHCR’s Athens Office in 2018. She also works as a lawyer, member of the Athens Bar Association (since 2017), while in parallel she develops manifold action in the field of intangible cultural heritage, as an executive of the “Polyphonic Caravan”, an institution of Panhellenic and cross-border action devoted to the safeguarding of the Polyphonic Song and Greece’s first proposal for inscription on UNESCO’s International Register of Good Safeguarding Practices in the field on intangible cultural heritage. Her areas of interest are public international law, international cultural heritage law, international human rights, environmental and intellectual property law. She is fluent in Greek (native language), English, French and German.

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Published

2021-04-20

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 3 (2020): Art Law and Cultural Heritage Law / Direito da Arte e do Patrimônio Cultural

Section

Panorama Geral sobre o Direito da Arte e do Patrimônio Cultural

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How to Cite

Peoples’ heritage or States’ heritage? Sovereignty in the UNESCO mechanism for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. (2021). Brazilian Journal of International Law, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.5102/rdi.v17i3.7192