Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-rj9fg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-20T18:30:36.201Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Refugee Protection through Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Home Country and Refugee Journey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2024

Sherine Al Shallah Open the ORCID record for Sherine Al Shallah [Opens in a new window]
Sherine Al Shallah*
Affiliation:
Higher Degree Research student at the University of New South Wales, and Affiliate of the Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The legal literature on refugee cultural heritage is limited, and cultural rights are part of the law that appropriately addresses refugee cultural heritage issues. Cultural heritage is integral to the definition of refugees; refugee protection must include safeguarding refugee cultural heritage.1 This Article reviews international law around refugees’ intangible cultural heritage, which incorporates refugee relationships with their tangible cultural heritage.2 It also frames the discussion around refugee intangible cultural heritage in a holistic paradigm that consolidates “refugee home heritage” (refugee intangible cultural heritage of home country) and “refuge heritage” (refugee intangible cultural heritage of refugee journey from persecution or conflict to resettlement or return). The Article finds that, whereas the international law framework lays the groundwork for such a holistic paradigm, international and national laws and state policy approaches must be reformed to achieve refugee protection in line with international obligations.

Keywords

Refugee cultural heritageintangible cultural heritagerefugee protectionrefugee definitionauthorized heritage discoursestatelessnessrefugee home heritagerefugee heritagerefugee camprefuge heritage
Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , August 2023 , pp. 280 - 297
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Cultural Property Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ahrén, Matthias, ‘Protecting Peoples’ Cultural Rights: A Question of Properly Understanding the Notion of States and Nations?’ In Francioni, Francesco and Scheinin, Martin (eds), Cultural Human Rights, 91 (2008).Google Scholar
Bagaric, Mirko and McConvill, James, ‘Refugee Law: Moving to a More Humane Approach – Ignoring the Framers’ Intentions’, Journal of Migration and Refugee Issues 2(3) (2006): 120.Google Scholar
Beddari, Salah el Khalfa, Les Murmeres Étuffés de L’Histoire (Éditions Beroaf, 2016).Google Scholar
Berry, J. W. ‘Immigration, acculturation and adaptation’, 41 Applied Psychology : An International Review 46(1) (1997):5–68.Google Scholar
Blake, Janet, ‘On Defining the Cultural Heritage’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 49(1) (2000): 6110.1017/S002058930006396XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blake, Janet, ‘Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Event of Armed Conflict: An Imperative for Cultural Heritage, Humanitarian and Human Rights Law’, Europa Ethnica 74(3/4), 2017: 73–81.10.24989/0014-2492-2017-34-73CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourhis, R Y, Montreuil, A, El-Geledi, S, Harvey, S P, and Barrette, G, ‘Acculturation in multiple host community settings’ Journal of Social Issues 66 (2010): 78010.1111/j.1540-4560.2010.01675.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R and Zagefka, H, ‘The dynamics of acculturation: An intergroup perspective’, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 44 (2011): 129.10.1016/B978-0-12-385522-0.00003-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burkett, Ingrid, ‘Traversing the swampy terrain of postmodern communities: Towards theoretical revisionings of community development.’ European Journal of Social Work 4(3) (2001): 233.Google Scholar
Burns, Ross, ‘Weaponising Monuments’, International Review of the Red Cross 99(3) (2017): 937.10.1017/S1816383118000462CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chechi, Alessandro, ‘“Migrants” Cultural Rights at the Confluence of International Human Rights Law and International Cultural Heritage Law’, International Human Rights Law Review, 5(1) (2016): 26.10.1163/22131035-00501001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Committee on Participation in Global Heritage Governance (Working Session and Roundtable Sydney, 22 August 2018)Google Scholar
Conversations from Calais (Web Page) https://www.conversationsfromcalais.com/conversationsfromcalaisarchive (accessed 21 February 2024)Google Scholar
Conversations from Calais, Posters on Walls (Web Page) https://www.conversationsfromcalais.com/ (accessed 21 February 2024)Google Scholar
Cunliffe, Emma, Muhesen, Nibal and Lostal, Marina, ‘The destruction of cultural property in the Syrian conflict: Legal implications and obligations’, International Journal of Cultural Property 23(1) (2016): 710.1017/S0940739116000011CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Decolonising Architecture Art Research, ‘Conservation’, Refugee Heritage (Web Page), http://www.decolonizing.ps/site/iv-conservation/ (accessed at 21 February 2024).Google Scholar
Decolonising Architecture Art Research, ‘Conservation’, Refugee Heritage (Web Page), http://www.decolonizing.ps/site/iv-conservation/ (accessed at 21 February 2024).Google Scholar
Decolonising Architecture Art Research, ‘Introduction’, Refugee Heritage (Web Page) http://www.decolonizing.ps/site/introduction-4/ (accessed at 21 February 2024)Google Scholar
Economic and Social Council. Commentary of the Working Group on Minorities to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, UN Doc E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.5/2005/2 (4 April 2005)Google Scholar
Esses, Victoria, “Immigration, Migration, and Culture” Oxford Research Encyclopedias, 28 March 2018;10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.287CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francioni, Francesco and Lenzerini, Federico, “The Destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan and International Law.” European Journal of International Law 14 (2003): 61910.1093/ejil/14.4.619CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francioni, Francesco, “The Human Dimension of International Cultural Heritage Law: An Introduction” European Journal of International Law 22(1) (2011): 910.1093/ejil/chr018CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, Nancy, “Rethinking recognition: Overcoming displacement and reification in cultural politics.” In Kevin Olsen (ed.), Adding insult to injury: Nancy Fraser debates her critics (London: Verso, 2008)Google Scholar
Fraser, Nancy, “Social justice in the age of identity politics: Redistribution, recognition and participation.” In Fraser, Nancy and Honneth, Axel (eds), Redistribution or recognition? A political‐philosophical exchange (London: Verso, 2003)Google Scholar
French Office for Immigration and Integration, The Republican Integration Contract (Web Page) https://www.ofii.fr/en/the-republican-integration-contract-an-aid-to-the-integration-of-migrants/ (accessed 21 February 2024)Google Scholar
Frigo, Manlio, “Cultural property v. cultural heritage: A battle of concepts in international law? ” International Review of the Red Cross, 86 (2004): 36710.1017/S1560775500180861CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerstenblith, Patty, “The Destruction of Cultural Heritage: A Crime Against Property or a Crime Against People.” John Marshall Review of Intellectual Property Law 15 (2016): 336Google Scholar
Godin, Marie, Hansen, Katrine Moller, Lounasmaa, Aura, Squire, Corinne, and Zaman, Tahir (eds). Voices from the “Jungle”: Stories from the Calais Refugee Camp (London: Pluto Press 2017)10.2307/j.ctt1n7qkpbCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin-Gill, Guy S. The Refugee in International Law (Clarendon Press, 2nd ed, 1996)Google Scholar
Harrison, Rodney. Heritage: Critical Approaches (New York: Routledge 2013, 136)Google Scholar
Hill, Emma, “Welcoming Nations? Hospitality as a Proxy for National Identity: A Consideration of British and Scottish Contexts.” In Haynes, A et al. (eds), Public and Political Discourses of Migration: International Perspectives (Washington DC: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016)Google Scholar
Hill, Emma, Craith, Máiréad Nic and Clopot, Cristina, “At the Limits of Cultural Heritage Rights? The Glasgow Bajuni Campaign and the UK Immigration System: A Case Study.” International Journal of Cultural Property 25 (2018): 3510.1017/S0940739118000024CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hochberg, Gil, “From Heritage to Refugee Heritage: Notes on Temporality, Memory, and Space.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 40(1) (2020): 4310.1215/1089201X-8186027CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofmann, Claudia Maria, “Leitkultur Meets German Angst: On the Role of Values and Needs in the German Debate on the Integration of Refugees.” In Lagrange, E, Oeter, S, and Uerpmann-Wittzack, R (eds), Cultural heritage and international law: Objects, means and ends of international protection (New York: Springer International Publishing, 2018)Google Scholar
Human Rights Committee, General Comment 27: Freedom of movement (Art.12) – General Comments of the Human Rights Committee on Article 12.4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, UN Doc CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.9 (1999)Google Scholar
Human Rights Council, General Report of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights: Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, 31st session, Agenda Item 3, UN Doc A/HRC/31/59 Distr. (3 February 2016). English Report of the Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural RightsGoogle Scholar
Human Rights Council, Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, 49th session, Agenda item 3, UN Doc A/HRC/49/54 (31 January 2022, Advance Unedited Version)Google Scholar
Human Rights Council, Report of the independent expert in the field of cultural rights, Ms. Farida Shaheed, submitted pursuant to resolution 10/23, UN Doc A/HRC/14/36 (22 March 2010)Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch, Azerbaijan: Seven Years of Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, December 1994 “In Case You Needed Reminding: Refugees Are People, Not Statistics.” Vice (News) https://www.vice.com/en/Article/y3ze3v/conversations-from-calais-mathilda-della-torreGoogle Scholar
International Criminal Court, The Office of The Prosecutor, Policy on Cultural Heritage, June 2021Google Scholar
Kuutma, Kristin, “Between Arbitration and Engineering: Concepts and Contingencies in the Shaping of Heritage Regimes.” In Bendix, R., Eggert, A., and Peselmann, A. (eds), Heritage Regimes and the State (Universitätsverlag Göttingen 2013) 2110.4000/books.gup.367CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemkin, Raphael, “Acts Constituting a General (Transnational) Danger Considered as Offences Against the Law of Nations.” (Additional explications to the Special Report presented to the 5th Conference for the Unification of Penal Law in Madrid, 14–20 October 1933) http://perma.cc/62QS-MR5GGoogle Scholar
Lister, Ruth, “(Mis)recognition, social inequality and social justice: A critical social policy perspective.” In Lovell, Terry (ed), (Mis)recognition, Social Inequality and Social Justice (London: Routledge, 2008)Google Scholar
Lixinski, Lucas, “Moving cultures: Engaging Refugee and Migrant Cultural Rights in International Heritage Law.” Indonesian Journal of International Law, 16(1), 2018: 110.17304/ijil.vol16.1.741CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lixinski, Lucas, International Heritage Law for Communities: Exclusion and Re-Imagination (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019)10.1093/oso/9780198843306.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Logan, William, “Playing the Devil’s Advocate: Protecting Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Infringement of Human Rights.” Historic Environment, 22(3) (2009): 14Google Scholar
London Borough of Ealing v Race Relations Board [1972] AC 342Google Scholar
Minca, Claudio, “Geographies of the Camp.” Political Geography 49 (2015): 7410.1016/j.polgeo.2014.12.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mould, Oli, “The Calais Jungle: A slum of London’s making.” City (3–4) (2017): 38810.1080/13604813.2017.1325231CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Brien, Melanie, and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard, “There We Are Nothing, Here We Are Nothing!—The Enduring Effects of the Rohingya Genocide.” Journal of Social Sciences 9 (2020): 209Google Scholar
Petti, Alessandro, “Refugee Heritage: Part III Justification for Inscription.” Humanities 6 (2017): 6610.3390/h6030066CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramadan, Adam, “Spatialising the Refugee Camp.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 38(1) (2013): 6510.1111/j.1475-5661.2012.00509.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rao, V. “Slum as Theory: The South/Asian City and Globalization.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 30(1) (2006): 22510.1111/j.1468-2427.2006.00658.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Redfield, R., Linton, R, and Herskovits, M J, “Memorandum for the study of acculturation.” American Anthropologist 38(1) (1936): 149–5210.1525/aa.1936.38.1.02a00330CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Refugee Data Finder, “Refugee Statistics,” United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (Web Page) https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/ (accessed 21 February 2024)Google Scholar
Report on the intentional destruction of cultural heritage as a violation of human rights , Report by the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, UN Doc A/71/317 (2016)Google Scholar
Rygiel, K, “Politicizing camps: Forging transgressive citizenships in and through transit.” Citizenship Studies 16(5–6) (2012): 80710.1080/13621025.2012.698511CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sam, D. L. “Acculturation: Conceptual background and core components.” In Sam, D. L. and Berry, J. W. (eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Social Psychology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)Google Scholar
Sargsyan v Azerbaijan (European Court of Human Rights, Grand Chamber, Application No 40167/06, 16 June 2015)Google Scholar
Smith, Laurajane, Uses of Heritage. (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006)10.4324/9780203602263CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The impact of the Rome Statute system on victims and affected communities , Resolution RC/Res.2 (First preambular recital, 9th plenary meeting, 8 June 2010) UN Doc No RC/11 https://asp.icc-cpi.int/sites/asp/files/asp_docs/Resolutions/RC-Res.2-ENG.pdf (accessed 21 February 2024).Google Scholar
Tyerman, Thom, “Everyday Borders in Calais: The Globally Intimate Injustices of Segregation.” Geopolitics 26(2) (2021): 46410.1080/14650045.2019.1631807CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UN General Assembly, The Crime of Genocide, Adopted at the 55th Plenary Meeting, 11 Dec. 1946. In: Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly during its resumed 1st session, Volume II, 23 October–15 December 1946. A/64/Add.2. 1947: 188–189.Google Scholar
United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General comment 21: Right of everyone to take part in cultural life (art. 15, para. 1(a), of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights). Forty-third session 2–20 November 2009. E/C.12/GC/21 21 December 2009 Distr.: General. Original: English.Google Scholar
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, (31st session, Paris: General Conference of UNESCO, 2 November 2001)Google Scholar
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Immunity of Cultural Property under Special Protection, The Hague Convention (Web Page) https://en.unesco.org/node/341352Google Scholar
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, “Dheisheh Camp,” Where We Work (Web Page) https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/west-bank/dheisheh-camp (accessed 21 February 2024)Google Scholar
United Nations Secretary-General, Elimination of All Forms of Religious Intolerance, Note by the Secretary-General: UN Doc A/ 8330 (6 Jul. 1971)Google Scholar
United Nations, Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes: A tool for prevention (2014) https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/about-us/Doc.3_Framework_of_Analysis_for_Atrocity_Crimes_EN.pdf (accessed 21 February 2024)Google Scholar
Vrdoljak, Ana Filipa, “Genocide and Restitution: Ensuring Each Group’s Contribution to Humanity.” The European Journal of International Law, 22(1) (2011): 1710.1093/ejil/chr003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waterton, Emma, and Smith, Laurajane, “The recognition and misrecognition of community heritage.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 16, 2010: 4–1510.1080/13527250903441671CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yakye Axa Indigenous Community v Paraguay (Judgment) (Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 17 June 2005)Google Scholar
Yar, Majid, Community in absentia? Res Publica, 8 (2002): 17910.1023/A:1016012413660CrossRefGoogle Scholar