ABSTRACT
Cultural rights are at high risk of being interfered with as a result of climate change. In fact, climate change may have adverse impacts on many cultural and natural heritage sites and on local communities, potentially resulting in the loss of cultural identity because of the abandonment of places and ways of living. Yet, while the climate crisis and its nexus with the protection of human rights have increasingly come under the spotlight more generally, less attention has so far been devoted to the interconnections between climate change, culture and cultural rights more specifically. This contribution purports to shed light on this specific aspect by analysing the limits and the potential of the cultural rights–based claims that have been advanced in the context of climate change cases that have been decided by, are currently pending or could be brought in the future before international human rights monitoring bodies. Considering the uncertainty surrounding the outcome of most of these claims, the chapter will conclude by arguing that a cultural rights–based approach to climate change may anyhow play a role in the application and development of international climate change law.
