Cultural rights include a group's ability to preserve its way of life, such as child rearing, continuation of language, and security of its economic base in the nation, which it is located.
These non-material aspects are recognized as essential, distinctive, and authentic to the cultural group, and are consistently recreated and transmitted to future generations.
[5] The related notion of indigenous intellectual property rights (IPR) has arisen in attempt to conserve each society's culture base and prevent ethnocide.
[6] In 1966, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Legal cases have invoked Article 27 as the basis to their right to practice traditional activities and livelihood in regard to the use of indigenous land and resources.
The General Conference determined that oral folklore could be at risk of being lost due to conflicts or dangers, and established recommendations to identify, conserve, preserve, disseminate, and protect folk traditions.
[11] Through this anthropological interpretation, culture is highly dependent on time and location, and as a result, international bodies have struggled to pinpoint its complexity in the legal language of rights.
[14] Indigenous efforts to pursue intellectual property rights have been challenged by the issue of protecting both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.