Collective cultural rights in Asia: recognition and enforcement

This paper focuses particularly on how the notion of collective cultural rights is understood in Asia and how such rights are recognized in law and enforced through governmental policy. The discussion links the notions of cultural rights and cultural heritage, drawing inspiration from Comment No. 21 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2009) which asserts that everyone has the right to take part in cultural life and that “the obligations to respect and to protect freedoms, cultural heritage and cultural diversity are interconnected.” Efforts to protect and enhance human rights can only take place within states, and the record in Asian countries is very mixed. First and second generation human rights, with their emphasis on the individual, are sometimes regarded as Western in origin and character, while third generation collective cultural rights have been closely associated with Indigenous peoples, commonly living as minorities within European settler societies in the New World. Unlike Europe, Africa and the Americas, Asia does not have a regional intergovernmental human rights charter. Using case studies of China, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam the paper seeks to show why there is no Asian charter and asks what would it look like if there was one.