Goodale: The Myth of Universality: The UNESCO “Philosophers’ Committee” and the Making of Human Rights

Mark Goodale (Univ. of Lausanne - Anthropology) has published The Myth of Universality: The UNESCO “Philosophers’ Committee” and the Making of Human Rights (Law & Social Inquiry, Vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 596-617, Summer 2018). Here's the abstract:

This article reexamines one of the most enduring questions in the history of human rights: the question of human rights universality. By the end of the first decade after the end of the Cold War, debates around the legitimacy and origins of human rights took on new urgency, as human rights emerged as an increasingly influential rubric in international law, transnational development policy, social activism, and ethical discourse. At stake in these debates was the fundamental status of human rights. Based in part on new archival research, this article offers an alternative interpretation of the rediscovery by scholars in the late 1990s of a 1947 UNESCO survey that purported to demonstrate the universality of human rights through empirical evidence. The article argues that this contested intellectual history reflects the enduring importance of the “myth of universality”—a key cultural narrative that we continue to use to find meaning across the long, dark night of history.

Jundt: Dueling Visions for the Postwar World: The UN and UNESCO 1949 Conferences on Resources and Nature, and the Origins of Environmentalism

Thomas Jundt (Brown Univ. - History) has published Dueling Visions for the Postwar World: The UN and UNESCO 1949 Conferences on Resources and Nature, and the Origins of Environmentalism (Journal of American History, Vol. 101, no. 1, pp. 44-70, June 2014). Here's the abstract:

Thomas Jundt examines the 1949 United Nations Scientific Conference on the Conservation and Utilization of Resources held in Lake Success, New York. Concerned that the conference would promote only traditional notions of conservation focused on the wise use of natural resources and the preservation of natural spaces deemed aesthetically pleasing, one of the United Nations’ own agencies, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, held the concurrent International Technical Conference on the Protection of Nature designed to encourage broader ideals of environmentalism—focused on issues of ecology, pollution, and sustainability—that emerged after World War II.

Dromgoole: Underwater Cultural Heritage and International Law

Sarah Dromgoole (Univ. of Nottingham - Law) has published Underwater Cultural Heritage and International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2013). Here's the abstract:

The UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage 2001, which entered into force internationally in 2009, is designed to deal with threats to underwater cultural heritage arising as a result of advances in deep-water technology. However, the relationship between this new treaty and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea is deeply controversial. This study of the international legal framework regulating human interference with underwater cultural heritage explores the development and present status of the framework and gives some consideration to how it may evolve in the future. The central themes are the issues that provided the UNESCO negotiators with their greatest challenges: the question of ownership rights in sunken vessels and cargoes; sovereign immunity and sunken warships; the application of salvage law; the ethics of commercial exploitation; and, most crucially, the question of jurisdictional competence to regulate activities beyond territorial sea limits.

Uibeleisen: Kulturschutz und Handelsliberalisierung: Das UNESCO-Übereinkommen über den Schutz und die Förderung der Vielfalt kultureller Ausdrucksformen

Sibylle Uibeleisen has published Kulturschutz und Handelsliberalisierung: Das UNESCO-Übereinkommen über den Schutz und die Förderung der Vielfalt kultureller Ausdrucksformen (Nomos 2012). Here's the abstract:

Advertisement

Die Liberalisierungsverpflichtungen der WTO-Verträge können in vielfacher Hinsicht mit nicht ökonomischen Regulierungszielen kollidieren. Während Kollisionen mit Umweltschutz und Sozialstandards seit langem diskutiert werden, behandelt die vorliegende Arbeit das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Kulturschutz und Handelsliberalisierung anhand des UNESCO-Übereinkommens über den Schutz und die Förderung der Vielfalt kultureller Ausdrucksformen.

Advertisement

Die Arbeit führt in die Grundlagen dieses Spannungsverhältnisses ein. Es folgt eine Darstellung des UNESCO-Übereinkommens, insbesondere werden seine Entstehungsgeschichte, seine Inhalte und das völkerrechtliche Umfeld beleuchtet. Anschließend lotet die Autorin das völkerrechtliche Konfliktpotential zwischen dem UNESCO-Übereinkommen und den Verträgen der WTO aus. Die Untersuchung führt zu dem Ergebnis, dass diese Konflikte aufgelöst werden können, indem die Verträge der WTO seit Verabschiedung des UNESCO Übereinkommens kultursensibel ausgelegt werden können.

von Schorlemer & Stoll: The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions: Explanatory Notes

Sabine von Schorlemer (Sächsische Staatsministerin für Wissenschaft und Kunst) & Peter-Tobias Stoll (Universität Göttingen - Law) have published The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions: Explanatory Notes (Springer 2012). Here's the abstract:

The 2005 UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity is a landmark agreement in modern international law of culture. It reflects the diverse and pluralist understanding of culture, as well as its growing commercial dimension. Thirty diplomats, practitioners and academics explain and assess this important agreement in a commentary style. Article by article, the evolution, concepts, contents and implications of the Convention are analysed in depth and are complemented by valuable recommendations for implementation. In an unprecedented way, the book draws on the first-hand insights of negotiators and on the experience of practitioners in implementation, including international cooperation, and combines this with a good deal of critical academic reflection. It is a valuable guide for those who deal with the Convention and its implementation in governments, diplomacy, international organizations, cultural institutions and non-governmental organizations and will also serve as an important resource for academic work in such fields as international law and international relations.