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FARIDA SHAHEED, UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR IN THE FIELD OF CULTURAL RIGHTS
Culture is like a prism through which we perceive, understand, respond to, engage with and assign meaning to
our human, natural and manufactured environment. The myriad cultural prisms embody the diversity of our
collective humanity, and culture is pivotal in promoting or obstructing mutual understanding.
Intercultural dialogue can only promote mutual understanding if we recognize that culture is a dynamic
process that reflects our responses to our ever-changing world with hopes but also fears, new ideas and creations.
Cultural processes are always sites of contestation over meanings, values and ways of life. The challenge is to
guarantee the cultural freedoms and rights of all persons to access, enjoy and refer to cultural works, express
their identity and creativity, participate in and contribute to cultural life without discrimination and on a basis
of equality. This includes the right to differ, to not participate in any cultural activities that undermine human
rights, to join, leave, rejoin and create new communities of shared values without fear; the right of everyone to
participate in several communities of shared cultural values simultaneously.
Policies for creating and enhancing intercultural dialogue therefore must be founded on providing everyone
with the opportunities and means to engage in critical thinking about themselves and the world they inhabit, to
question as well as enjoy received wisdom and cultural heritage; to contribute to interpretation and present new
ideas and creative expressions. As it is never abstract ‘cultures’ or ‘civilizations’ that meet, but individual people,
this demands particular attention to ensuring concrete possibilities for women and other marginalized groups to
fully engage in cultural processes in their societies and the world at large. To enable all of us to truly help to build
shared values and social cohesion, we must ensure safe and welcoming public spaces for interactions and creative
expressions to enrich our world.
Intercultural dialogues can contribute to creating vibrant cultures and healthy democracies by accepting
the inevitably diverse interpretations of culture and cultural heritage, and ensuring the visibility of multivoice
narratives of the past and the present, in history teaching and memorialization processes for instance, to reflect
the rich diversity of our common humanity.
Farida Shaheed
United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights