The UN Security Council, the Human Rights Council, and the Protection of Cultural HeritageA Matter of Peace and Security, Human Rights, or Both?

Abstract

Abstract The UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council have increasingly addressed the destruction of cultural heritage in recent years, reflecting an expanded focus on cultural heritage protection across the UN system. This chapter examines the approaches of these two bodies to cultural heritage destruction and explores how their approaches have mutually reinforced each other but also reflected their different mandates: international peace and security and international human rights, respectively. This chapter starts with an analysis of some of the key Human Rights Council resolutions on the matter, as well as the work of its special procedures, in particular the Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights. It then looks at the resolutions of the Security Council both to assess the manner in which the Security Council has introduced cultural heritage destruction to the peace and security agenda and also to identify whether the Security Council has additionally addressed such destruction as a human rights violation. The chapter concludes with discussion of whether a human rights approach to cultural heritage destruction should be adopted more widely.