Culture, Development and Cultural Rights

Abstract

This chapter sets out the direction and purpose of the book as a whole, by introducing and elaborating the concept of cultural rights. It notes that while the idea of human rights, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now an established (if not always honored) part of the architecture of international law, the notion of cultural rights, while formally enshrined in such documents as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, is much less discussed or related to on-going issues in such fields as that of culture and development, itself a growing area as issues of culture have been recognized as being as significant in development as economics and politics. Concern with the actual or potential erosion of cultures through the forces of globalization has alarmed many actors concerned with the integrity of culture and its relationship to identity and heightened debate in both domestic and international forums about the protection of culture and the maintaining of the right to cultural expression.