Explore the vast range of titles available.

The legal literature on refugee cultural heritage is limited, and cultural rights are part of the law that appropriately addresses refugee cultural heritage issues. Cultural heritage is integral to the definition of refugees; refugee protection must include safeguarding refugee cultural heritage.1 This Article reviews international law around refugees’ intangible cultural heritage, which incorporates refugee relationships with their tangible cultural heritage.2 It also frames the discussion around refugee intangible cultural heritage in a holistic paradigm that consolidates “refugee home heritage” (refugee intangible cultural heritage of home country) and “refuge heritage” (refugee intangible cultural heritage of refugee journey from persecution or conflict to resettlement or return). The Article finds that, whereas the international law framework lays the groundwork for such a holistic paradigm, international and national laws and state policy approaches must be reformed to achieve refugee protection in line with international obligations.

The southern borders of Lebanon have long been the focus of a territorial dispute, implicating cultural heritage in two key ways. Firstly, the destruction of tangible – and, to some extent, intangible – cultural heritage has been used to weaken the Lebanese population’s connection to borderlands in the south of Lebanon and to reinforce population displacement. Secondly, museum collections and archaeological claims are employed to construct national historical narratives, effectively attributing parts of southern Lebanon’s heritage to other nations and legitimizing associated territorial claims by states linked to those nations. These practices reflect a broader tension between cultural heritage as a national concern, tied to human rights, and as a state concern, tied to territorial sovereignty. Examining them offers both academic insight – contributing to debates on cultural heritage, nations, and states – and practical policy relevance, given their impact on ongoing border demarcation in southern Lebanon. This article explores the intersection of territorial sovereignty and cultural heritage through analysing the international doctrine applied to Lebanon’s southern borders. It reviews the scholarship on transboundary heritage, the link between state succession and cultural heritage, the national characterization of heritage, and its connection to human rights. The study engages with concepts of culture, heritage, identity, territory, statehood, and borders within the Lebanese context and adopts a multidisciplinary approach, drawing on archaeology, ethnography, anthropology, and history.