‘No One May Invoke’

The protection of cultural heritage within the international legal system is a pre-condition for the full realization of human rights. Paradoxically, however, in the UNESCO Conventions on intangible cultural heritage (2003) and on the diversity of cultural expressions (2005) the relationship with human rights is regulated through clauses whose formulation “sounds” as though it foresees possible inconsistencies. The way the clause inserted in the 2005 Convention is worded, in particular, resembles a solemn subordination clause (‘no one may invoke’, taken from the previous Declaration of 2001 almost verbatim). The negotiators of the 2005 UNESCO Convention were mainly concerned with possible antinomies with respect to obligations on the liberalization of trade. In that case, though, it was opted to include in the treaty an almost “didactic” underlining of mutual supportiveness between treaties, to be pursued through a constructive and synergistic operational approach by States, both in negotiating new agreements and in interpreting and executing existing ones. A fortiori, this must be the approach to be followed with reference to the relationship with human rights, with a view to pursuing paths of sustainable development, through the construction of synergies and the projection into the future of the Community and its needs: an inter-generational dimension that in fact has always been a distinctive feature of the international protection of cultural heritage.