Cultural Rights: A Historical Appraisal of the Reasons for Their Underdevelopment

Abstract Cultural rights received increasing attention in the 1990s, but still, there is a pending task to implement them fully. This article examines the historical, ideological, and practical factors that have contributed to their underdevelopment. Five reasons are explored: the separation of civil and political rights and economic, social, and cultural rights in two covenants; the new developments in economic and social rights; the risk and fears of cultural relativism in the universality debates; the question and concerns over demands of self-determination; and the lack of awareness of culture’s role in human development.