Call for contribution on global governance of development and its impact on cultural rights

Purpose: To inform the Special Rapporteur’s 2023 report to the General Assembly

The Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Ms. Alexandra Xanthaki, will continue to work on cultural rights in development for her next report to the General Assembly, examining more closely the global governance of development and its impact on cultural rights, and she asks for your input!

Submissions were to be sent electronically until 14 April, but the Special Rapporteur is happy to accept additional submissions until 28 April 2023, to be sent at this email address, hrc-sr-culturalrights@un.org, using the email title: “Submission: Cultural rights and the governance of development”.

In this report, the Special Rapporteur intends to examine how the various operational actors of development agendas integrate cultural rights and goals in their principles and policies. She proposed to identify existing gaps between the international cultural rights norms and standards and the operational approaches and programmes. The aim is to contribute to bridging these gaps between the principles and the practices, to share successful practices and experiences and to provide some guidance on how cultural rights can be better implemented in development agendas and strategies, including in the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and beyond.

Key questions and types of input sought

Main questions (for all stakeholders)

1. How are human rights generally integrated in your policies and programmes? Please indicate if human rights are mandatory considerations, at what stage of the programme they are integrated and if any, what kind of impact assessment and monitoring is done of their implementation.

2. Please provide examples of any programmes that contribute to the respect, protection and implementation of cultural rights, in particular:

   • The right to choose and maintain one’s identity, and to take part in the cultural life of one’s choice;

   • The right to access, enjoy and transmit cultural heritage, including languages and ways of life;

   • The right to access and transmit creative expressions and knowledge, and to access the creativity and knowledge of others;

   • The right to access to the benefits of science and its applications, including scientific knowledge, technology, and opportunities to contribute to the scientific enterprise;

   • The right to benefit from the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which one is the author;

   • The right to take part in decision making processes that have an impact on one’s cultural life, including:

     • the right of effective participation and consultation for minorities;

     • the right to free, prior and informed consent by indigenous peoples and by local populations.

See more information!