Project’s overall description
This project investigates how human rights guarantees
in relation to cultural heritage are being understood and implemented in the EU
and in its neighbouring countries. It focuses on Poland, the United Kingdom and
Italy - countries representing different cultural, political and legal
traditions - and their relations with other states and non-state cultural
communities. The regions on which the project focuses are Poland in relation to Germany and Ukraine; the U.K. in
relation to former dependent territories and Italy in its external
relationships with the neighbouring Western Balkan countries. Acknowledging the changing nature of the right
to cultural heritage, the project’s main innovative goals are (i) to provide a
description of the many meanings of this right for the European communities and
for the project of the EU integration, and (ii) to map how this right’s
evolving content affects the forms of protection, access to and governance of
cultural heritage.
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Research Team of Trieste
After
these dramatic events, respect for, and the protection of, minorities and
cultural rights, as well as an improvement in regional cooperation to address
war crimes issues are under constant scrutiny by EU institutions and constitute
an important part of the conditions of accession established by the
Stabilization and Accession Agreements with the Western Balkan countries. Cultural cooperation is intended, inter alia, to raise mutual
understanding and esteem between individuals, communities and peoples. Acceding
countries should also undertake to cooperate to promote cultural diversity,
notably within the framework of UNESCO legal instruments and standard-setting.
With particular reference to Serbia, a path towards the comprehensive
normalization of its relationships with Kosovo is particularly important for
the EU accession process.
Research goals
The general aims of the study will be, firstly, to identify the current legal and meta-legal techniques of
cultural heritage protection and restitution issues in each of these countries,
in order to produce a reliable map of existing legislation and practice.
Secondly, the project will assess how cultural heritage protection is perceived
by the relevant communities (e.g. whether rights to cultural heritage are
perceived as factors for the separation or harmonization of cultural
differences). Particular attention will be devoted to the interconnection
between the rights to cultural heritage and religion, as means that can be used
to build the identity of the communities living in these countries. The legacy
of the communist past and its relationship with religion and cultural rights
will also be addressed.
Thirdly, the research will identify the role that cultural heritage protection
may play in the process of the Europeanization of these countries, studying
whether the identification of new sustainable strategies for the protection and
management of cultural heritage may help these countries in the preparation or
implementation of their access to the EU, fostering cultural cooperation and
minorities’ protection which are so crucial for EU enlargement within this
region.