Amin Maalouf and the Value of Cultural Diversity for Universal Cultural Rights in International Law: Lessons from the Levant

Beatriz Barreiro Carril

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Chapter 9 Amin Maalouf and the Value of Cultural Diversity for Universal Cultural Rights in International Law

Lessons from the Levant

in The Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

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Beatriz Barreiro Carril

Beatriz Barreiro Carril
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Art:: Kapitel

Seiten:: 210–237

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004466180_010

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Abstract

This article seeks to contribute to the better understanding of current international cultural rights and of their evolution by focusing on the Lebanon and the works of Amin Maaouf. His novel The Disoriented (Les Desorientés)¹ is a very useful tool for this objective. I will take into account the importance of accurately understanding the legal concepts of universality and cultural diversity in International Law.

In the first section, I will discuss how International Human Rights Law has dealt with cultural rights. Law – International Law included – has for many decades easily accepted a flawed conception of culture which did not understand its dynamic nature, as well as the capacity of diverse cultural expressions to engage in conversation among them and to generate common and universal cultural expressions. Culture was commonly seen as a risk for universality and universal human rights.

In the second section, I will explain how things started to change and International Law has definitively left the attitude of ‘demonizing’ culture and started to put into question the flawed conceptions it has been using.² Such a change is clear in the works of organs of the United Nations which are going to be analyzed.

The third section discusses the notion of cultural diversity and its links with International Human Rights Law. An appreciation of cultural diversity is essential for an adequate understanding and implementation of cultural rights to be understood as universal rights. This article will explain the concept of cultural diversity as developed in the 2005 UNESCO Cultural Diversity Convention and the Declaration on Cultural Diversity which preceded it.³ An interdisciplinary group, which included International Law experts but also experts from other disciplines, including Amin Maalouf, was in charge of preparing a document on which this Convention would be based.

The fact that Amin Maalouf played a role in the development of the text concerning cultural diversity is key. Looking into extra-legal tools such as literature for contributing to the understanding of cultural rights is essential, as Martha Nussbaum shows through the concept of narrative imagination.⁴ This article seeks to contribute to explaining the value of cultural diversity for universal cultural rights in legal terms through Maalouf’s novel Les Desorientés. This novel offers invaluable material for the understanding of complex legal concepts – culture, identity, and community – which are at the core of an adequate use of cultural rights and cultural diversity which avoids segregation and contributes to the knowledge among diverse cultural expressions and to the fulfillment of universal human dignity.

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The Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

Volume 5

Reihe: The Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Band: 5

Cover The Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

ISBN:: 9789004466180

Verleger:: Brill | Nijhoff

Print-Publikationsdatum:: 03 Aug 2021

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Aufrufe von Kurzbeschreibungen	1049	153	3
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Afrikanistik	Internationale Beziehungen	Nahost- und Islamwissenschaften
Altorientalistik und Ägyptologie	Internationales Recht	Pädagogik
Amerikanistik	Judaistik	Philosophie
Asienwissenschaften	Klassische Altertumswissenschaft	Religionswissenschaft
Bibelauslegung	Kunstgeschichte	Slawistik und Eurasienkunde
Biologie	Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaften	Sozialwissenschaften
Biowissenschaften	Medienwissenschaft	Sprachen und Linguistik
Buchgeschichte und Kartographie	Menschenrechte und humanitäres Völkerrecht	Theologie und Christentum
Geschichte	Musikwissenschaft

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Chapter 9 Amin Maalouf and the Value of Cultural Diversity for Universal Cultural Rights in International Law

Lessons from the Levant

Abstract

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The Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

Volume 5

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