How does International Human Rights Law Respond to Indigenous Peoples’ Rights to Culture?
摘要
The chapter explores Indigenous peoples’ rights, particularly the right to culture, reflected in international human rights law. This reflection underlines the complexity of integrating technological innovation, such as the digitisation of cultural heritage, into the meaning of Indigenous rights under specific provisions of mainstream human rights law. Although the meaning of Indigenous peoples’ right to culture has been explained through authoritative states, e.g., General Comments, and implemented through a series of communications, e.g., the case law jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee, there was yet no explicit reference to digital culture and digital cultural heritage. The chapter asks whether technological innovation, e.g., digitised cultural heritage, corresponds to the meaning provided by the interpretation of human rights law that applies to Indigenous peoples. While an affirmative answer to this question is underscored, the chapter, however, offers the complexity lies in the conflicting legal regimes in this particular context, namely the Intellectual Property Rights and Indigenous peoples’ rights within the human rights framework, calling for further in-depth research to find a potential reconciliation between the two regimes respecting Indigenous worldview and customary norms.