REFLECTIONS ON THE CULTURAL RIGHTS UNDER THE EUROPEAN UNION CHARTER OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

The article examines, in a comparative perspective, the improvements of the regulation of cultural rights supplied through their inclusion in the Charter of fundamental rights. The plurisemantic character of the concepts related to cultural rights, such as "cultural identity" or "cultural heritage" and their connections requires compulsory conceptual explanations. For a better understanding of the amendments of the Charter are useful to be mentioned other normative European and international sources. Nevertheless, just the common legal bases for different types of rights generally, cultural rights being specified together with social and economic rights - and the "cultural dimension" of other rights impose a clear determination of the sphere of cultural rights - freedom of arts and sciences, right to education, freedom of expression and information, cultural, religious and linguistic diversity - and an explication of the principle of interdependence of the rights. The presentation of the principles which outline the content of the cultural rights emphasizes that the Charter text was drafted in accordance with the current evolution of society, national legislations and case law of European Court of Human Rights - standard court in the field of human rights. Finally, an analysis of the most frequent violations of cultural rights, in function of their titular or context, contributes to find proper mechanisms for a better guarantee of respect of cultural rights.