Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the role assumed by the international law about the protection recognized to the bond among a people and his cultural heritage inside the discipline of a specific crime: the genocide. The existence of the cultural genocide as autonomous crime, in fact, is and has been over the time, as will be seen in the course of the discussion, a highly debated theme in doctrine. Despite in the last years more voices have been raised for its recognition, the prevailing position is that the crime of genocide doesn’t constitute if the behaviors that mine the culture of the protected groups are not accompanied by actions of physical or biological aggression. The paper therefore provides a definition of the concept also through the reconstruction of the genesis of its first theorization by the undisputed father of this specific crime Raphael Lemkin.