Ten years ago, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 6/11 on the Protection of Cultural Heritage as an Important Component of the Promotion and Protection of Cultural Rights, in which the protection of cultural heritage is considered “an important component of the promotion and protection of all human rights.” ^{Footnote 1} Around the same time, the Norwegian chapter of the International Council of Monuments and Sites started the project Our Common Dignity: Towards Rights-Based World Heritage Management, and Helaine Silverman and D. Fairchild Ruggles published one of the first edited volumes in which the interface between cultural heritage and human rights was explored. ^{Footnote 2} These initiatives mark the beginning of a noteworthy increase in interest in the links between heritage, culture, and rights by a wide range of actors—from academics to governments and from the UN to the European Union. The last decade saw numerous significant developments in this arena, including the preparation of reports by UN special rapporteurs on cultural rights, ^{Footnote 3} references to rights in world heritage policy documents, ^{Footnote 4} and the prosecution of Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi at the International Criminal Court for the intentional destruction of cultural heritage. ^{Footnote 5}

The volume Heritage, Culture and Rights: Challenging Legal Discourses, edited by Andrea Durbach and Lucas Lixinski and published 10 years after the first UN resolution on the topic, takes stock of the legal side of these recent discourses on cultural heritage and rights. It is based on a workshop held in Sydney in 2013 with the support of the Australian Human Rights Centre at the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales and the Association of Critical Heritage Studies. Seven of the 11 contributors are based at Australian institutions. However, only one of the chapters (by Amelia Thorpe) focuses exclusively on an Australian case. The other chapters discuss case studies from several different areas of the world. The only notable absence is a discussion of “China’s use of shipwreck sites and underwater cultural heritage to make territorial claims,” which is mentioned in the description of the book, along with conflicts in Syria and Mali, to illustrate the relevance of the links between heritage, culture, and rights in the contemporary global context. The volume consists of 302 pages and 11 chapters, plus an introduction. It has been divided into three parts, each consisting of three to four chapters that provide a different perspective on rights and heritage.

The four chapters in Part 1, entitled “Human Rights and Heritage: A Possible Alliance?” explore ways in which international cultural heritage and human rights law can reinforce each other. For example, Scott Hawken sees opportunities to combat urban poverty in Southeast Asia through the strategic use of the urban heritage of the region. Francesco Francioni and Lucas Lixinski outline how human rights instruments can support the enforcement of heritage law and vice versa. They conclude, however, that “existing tools need further refinement if they are to fully work in this realm” (34). Ben Boer investigates the role of heritage, culture, and rights in the post-2015 development agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals and regrets that “culture in its own right” (58) was not fully embraced as specific goal of sustainable development. He argues that in order to realize the potential of the global sustainable development agenda, it is necessary to take a more integrated approach, “whereby the right to culture and heritage, the right to environment and the principle of sustainable development are seen as inherently linked” (59). Further deficiencies of the international legal framework are identified by Ana Filipa Vrdoljak, who argues that existing international humanitarian law is insufficient to protect heritage, culture, and rights in the context of the rapidly changing nature of war. She specifically refers to the “involvement of social scientists and their research in the privatisation of military, intelligence and security services” (88). Despite the identification of lacunae and weaknesses, what unites these chapters is that the authors see ways in which international law can be refined and strengthened to enable better protection of heritage, culture, and rights in the future.

Conversely, Part 2, entitled “Heritage in Tension with Rights,” consists of four chapters that discuss cases where the priorities of heritage and rights conflict with each other. In the context of the legislative framework for public participation in urban planning in Sydney, Amelia Thorpe demonstrates that “the private propriety rights of existing owners,” who deploy “heritage” and “character” to protect their own interests, can conflict with “rights related to housing, disabilities and religious minorities” (146). Josephine Gillespie explains how in Angkor in Cambodia “the protective regime for cultural heritage property has the potential to fracture the social fabric of those living within the protected property” (179). In China and sub-Saharan Africa, social and economic development projects can be in direct tension with cultural conservation, as illustrated by the cases discussed in the chapters by Stefan Gruber and Folarin Shyllon.

Thus, the chapters in Part 1 emphasize the opportunities of the legal discourses of heritage, culture, and rights, while the chapters in Part 2 outline the limitations. These different perspectives reflect those of the authors contributing to this special issue of the International Journal of Cultural Property. Despite being conscious of the tenacious reality where further refinement of legal principles or enforcement mechanisms faces resistance, the articles by Bahar Aykan and Peter Larsen and Kristal Buckley highlight the opportunities. The uneasy relationship between heritage and rights—the focus of the chapters in Part 2 of this volume—is reflected in the articles by Emma Hill, Máiréad Nic Craith and Cristina Clopot, Maria Fernanda Escallón, and Anne-Laura Kraak.

The volume, Heritage, Culture and Rights includes a third part, entitled “Heritage as a Tool for Broader Political Transformation.” The three chapters in this part explore more indirect ways in which heritage relates to rights. Andrea Durbach examines the transformation of four sites in post-Apartheid South Africa where “[h]eritage is considered part of symbolic reparations” (224). Lixinski explores how, for minority groups, cultural heritage listing could present a springboard for further political and economic claims and, ultimately, forms of self-determination. Finally, Andrzej Jakubowski’s chapter is concerned with the role of world heritage sites in political and cultural conflict resolution. The conclusions of these chapters are mixed; Durbach’s South African case studies convincingly show how heritage can play a role in addressing collective harm and reconciliation. The cases discussed by Lixinski and Jakubowski also include the identification of significant limitations in the potential of heritage to contribute to self-determination or conflict resolution.

The main aim of the volume is to contribute legal perspectives to debates about heritage, culture, and rights, which often take place in a multi- or interdisciplinary realm where these key terms are approached as broader sets of ideas and practices. The editors argue that “much of the discourse and academic literature on the topic neglects the nuances of the legal dimensions of these debates” (3). Yet, it needs to be noted that the centrality of the law varies with each chapter. Some chapters use legal jargon and abbreviations that require the reader to have some legal background knowledge (for example, Vrdoljak), while in other chapters the legal framework is only used as a background, and other developments take a more prominent place in the chapter (for example, Hawken).

The strongest part of this volume is the different, sometimes conflicting, perspectives that it covers. There is no attempt to make an overarching argument about whether further legal consolidation of the links between heritage, culture, and rights should be the way forward. Although some contributors make such arguments in the context of their particular cases, others emphasize the limitations and tensions that are part of the interface of different legal frameworks. As a result, the volume strongly reflects the complexity of rights-based approaches to culture and heritage. Nevertheless, there is an underlying tone of optimism. Challenges and obstacles are identified, yet most contributors emphasize the potential of the role of culture and heritage for peace building, self-determination, sustainable development, and poverty alleviation. Personally, I do not find this optimism always equally convincing, but that is up the reader to evaluate.

While its legal focus presents a unique contribution to the debates on heritage and rights, it also outlines the limitations of the volume. For example, detailed insights in legal intricacies comes at the expense of an in-depth analysis of why culture is not incorporated in the sustainable development agenda (Boer); why existing international legal frameworks regarding cultural rights and cultural heritage in armed conflict are often disregarded (Vrdoljak); how different Chinese constituencies feel about the tensions between cultural conservation and development (Gruber); or how the social convention of land inheritance in Angkor may be approached in the future (Gillespie). Such analyses are usually the realm of political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists and, accordingly, fall outside of the scope of this volume. It is explicitly a volume about “challenging legal discourses” and, as such, presents a timely contribution that sheds light on this particular angle of the link between heritage, culture, and rights. Overall, it is an interesting and accessible volume for anyone with an interest in heritage and rights, and a legal background is not strictly necessary.