INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE AND HUMAN RIGHTS: CASE STUDY IN THE IMMIGRANT SOCIETY OF NORTH CAROLINA, USA

Abstract

Article 2 (1) of the UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage defines “intangible cultural heritage” as “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts, and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities […] recognize as part of their cultural heritage.” Cultural Heritage than, is the “expression of the ways of living developed by a community and passed on from generation to generation”. The thesis will focus on the problem of immigration, integration and citizenship, in relation to the international conventions on the protection of intangible cultural heritage. The issue of Cultural Heritage invests many aspects of the immigration policies, such as the education problem, the preservation of the language, integration, and the protection of human rights. After briefly outlining the problems of immigration in the United States, showing data, outlining immigration policies and international issues, the thesis will then summarize the problems of cultural integration and the consequent development of the concept of intangible Cultural Heritage. Together with the policies concerning integration and the social and cultural processes that are actuated to help an individual to become part of a society, countries and international organizations have established to draft a whole set of conventions apt to safeguard the particular issue of the cultural intangible heritage of the people arriving in a new country. In a second part, the 1995 “Framework convention for the Protection of National Minorities”, the 2001 UNESCO’S “Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity”, the 2003 “Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage”, and the 2005 “Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions”, will be presented, analyzing which countries have ratified them and why. Finally, the thesis will focus on the particular frame of the United States of America and the peculiar case of North Carolina. In the latest years, North Carolina has become part of the movement of states and local municipalities searching for new strategies to compensate the failure of federal immigration reform at the national level. North Carolina has become an important barometer of contemporary immigration debates for the nation. The thesis will analyze few specific case studies regarding the initiatives, laws and statements issued by the government and institutions of North Carolina, as well as the international organizations working in the state on the protection and development of the Cultural Heritage and related issues in the immigrated minorities. The final objective of the thesis will be to understand if there are strategies, or ideas that can be shared to help and improve the social condition of many new citizens. Why has immigrant segregation increased even if racial segregation has declined? What can governments and international organizations do to promote the integration of different cultures and at the same time preserve their national Cultural Heritage, and how can international law help?