From Clash of Diversities to Protection of Pluralism During and After Conflicts Through the Respect of the World Cultural Heritage

Despite the close links between religion and culture, religious diversity and cultural diversity do not have an equal protection approach in the international legal order. Both are protected, from an individual point of view, through human rights. Cultural diversity, though, has doubled its rate of protection, having been recognised also “as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature, thus being included within the protection of the so-called “common goods”. On the contrary, it is generally agreed that no area of human rights is so distant from a meaningful international consensus at the universal level as the right to religious diversity. Since attacks aimed at cultural heritage generally accompany or precede serious and massive human rights violations, usually to the detriment of ethnic or religious minorities, they are also an aspect of the threat to peace. The reinforcement of UNESCO’s action for the protection of culture and the promotion of cultural pluralism in the event of armed conflict was adopted based on the convinction that the denial of cultural diversity has become a security issue, and since the protection of culture cannot be delinked from humanitarian operations, it must be a key component of any strategy for peace. There is a tight association between the protection of cultural heritage, development and security policies; this approach requires an unprecedented mixture in the use of “hard” and “soft” power by States and renewed efforts in structuring the cooperation between international organizations – as, in the case of the “blue helmets of culture”, between the United Nations and UNESCO.