Cultural Human Rights and the UNESCO Convention: More than Meets the Eye?

Shortly after the adoption of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions Donders analysed to what extent this Convention could play a role in the advancement of human rights in general and cultural rights in particular, despite the fact that cultural rights are not explicitly included in this treaty. She concluded that ‘…for those who expected a new international instrument promoting and protecting cultural rights, the Cultural Diversity Convention is clearly a disappointment. Although the human rights framework in relation to cultural diversity is recognized, cultural rights are not reaffirmed as the enabling environment for cultural diversity and are not further advanced.’ At the same time, she argued that several provisions in the Convention elaborate on possible measures to be taken by States parties to protect the diversity of cultural expressions, which resemble measures to be taken to protect and promote cultural rights. Ten years after the adoption of the Convention she assesses to what extent these conclusions are still valid. She analyses the question as to what the Convention has to offer in practice for the promotion and protection of human rights, in particular cultural rights, on the basis of the practice of the Convention as expressed by the Operational Guidelines and States Parties reports. To what extent do States Parties use the Convention as a tool to promote human rights, in particular cultural rights? Is the human rights relevance of the Convention perhaps more than meets the eye?