Human rights and the protection of different cultural identities

Abstract

In the rather confused situation that has arisen after the end of the cold war, human rights have been codified in detail by means of international acts of a general and a particular nature but, due to their frequent violations, they still provoke conflicts, sometimes even of the military type. Many of these conflicts derive from often longstanding political, religious and ethnic rivalry, and in certain regions they have become uncontrollable, especially after the fall of the communist regimes. As a consequence, the problem of cultural identities which ask to be recognized as collective identities has effectively become an emergency in the international scenario.