ABSTRACT
It is highly questionable whether and to what extent human remains can be considered as cultural heritage. Questions of human rights have a role to play here, especially as regards the respect due to the private life and the religious belief of a deceased individual and his/her relatives and to the protection of the cultural rights of the people to which he/she belonged. Can human remains be understood as included in the definitions of cultural heritage or property given in a number of multilateral treaties on the protection of culture, starting from those concluded within the UNESCO framework? If they can, can an evolutive and systemic interpretation be preferred today in order to exclude them from the scope of application of such treaties because of prevailing human rights concerns? The fact that human remains can still be found exhibited in some museums or scientific collections is not conclusive, as, more and more frequently, they are withdrawn from public display or returned to the peoples that have a connection with them, in particular Indigenous peoples. Some instances relevant for their legal implications will be analysed in this chapter, such as the 2010 French legislation that allowed the return of Maori heads to New Zealand, the pending dispute between Australia and Italy on the restitution of human bones kept in Italian museums and belonging to South-West Australian Aboriginal people, or the special case of ancient Egyptian mummies. Human remains found in wrecks considered underwater cultural heritage (for example, sunken warships) also present notable legal implications, as shown by the 1989 exchange of notes between South Africa and the United Kingdom on the HMS Birkenhead, or the 2003 agreement on the Titanic wreck.
