A/HRC/46/34 Advance Edited Version Distr.: General 17 February 2021 Original: English Human Rights Council Forty-sixth session 22 February–19 March 2021 Agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development COVID-19, culture and cultural rights Report of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Karima Bennoune* Summary The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is a cataclysm for cultural rights, threatening a global “cultural catastrophe” with severe, long-lasting consequences for human rights if effective action is not taken immediately. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights surveys the negative impacts of COVID-19 on culture and cultural rights worldwide, and the positive potential of culture and cultural rights, and the right to science, to enhance rights-respecting solutions and build resilience. The report also contains relevant recommendations for action. * The present report was submitted after the deadline so as to include the most recent information. A/HRC/46/34 Contents Page I. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 3 II. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and responses to it, on cultural rights .................................. 4 III. Roles of culture and cultural rights in responding to the pandemic .............................................. 10 IV. Right to science ............................................................................................................................. 13 V. Necessary steps for mitigating the impacts of the pandemic on cultural rights ............................. 16 VI. International legal framework ....................................................................................................... 17 VII. Conclusions and recommendations ............................................................................................... 20 A. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 20 B. Recommendations ................................................................................................................. 20 2 A/HRC/46/34 I. Introduction 1. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is a cataclysm for cultural rights. Indeed, it is a foundational challenge to all human rights. As at 6 February 2021, there were 106 million confirmed cases and 2.3 million deaths worldwide.1 The International Labour Organization labelled the pandemic the “worst global crisis since the Second World War”.2 As the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights noted, it “is having devastating impacts throughout the world on all spheres of life”.3 Undoubtedly, this includes cultural life. In addition to the current health and economic crises, humanity faces nothing less than a potential global “cultural catastrophe”, with severe, long-lasting consequences for cultural rights – and other human rights – if necessary action is not taken immediately by all relevant actors. 2. An effective response to the pandemic requires a twenty-first century holistic human rights approach that mainstreams cultural rights.4 The Special Rapporteur seeks to contribute to such an approach by addressing the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on culture and cultural rights worldwide, and the positive potential of cultures and cultural rights to enhance rights-respecting solutions and build resilience. 3. In many contexts, members of marginalized groups that face structural inequalities, including indigenous peoples, minorities, older persons and persons with disabilities, have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, while the virus has also killed indiscriminately across all socioeconomic groups, ages and identities.5 Both the universal reach and the discriminatory impacts need to be addressed. Health-care workers have paid a particularly high price for defending the right to life of others, with countless thousands infected, and an unknown number dying.6 4. COVID-19 “vividly illustrates the importance of the indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights”.7 This means actually taking into consideration the range of rights – civil, cultural, economic, political and social – while also recognizing what the Human Rights Committee terms the “crucial importance” of the right to life.8 It will also be essential to take the issue of accountability for violations of economic, social and cultural rights as seriously as accountability for violations of civil and political rights during the pandemic. 5. Cultural rights are core to the human experience, and essential for implementing other universal human rights and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. They are not a luxury, even during a global health crisis. In fact, as the Special Rapporteur has noted throughout 2020, culture is the heart of our response to COVID-19. Rights guaranteed in article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and in article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the right to take part in cultural life and the right to science, 9 are even more vital during a pandemic. As the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights indicated in its general comment No. 25 (2020), the right to participate in and to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications is instrumental in realizing the right to health (para. 67). With regard to the arts, writer Stephen King tweeted: “If you think artists are useless, try to spend your quarantine without music, books, poems, movies and paintings.”10 A basic paradox emerged: just at the moment when resort to the enjoyment of culture was increasing11 as a coping mechanism, 1 See https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html (accessed on 6 February 2021). 2 “ILO monitor: COVID-19 and the world of work – second edition” (7 April 2020). 3 E/C.12/2020/1, para. 1. 4 Karima Bennoune, “Lest we should sleep: COVID-19 and human rights”, American Journal of International Law, vol. 114, No. 4 (October 2020). 5 See, e.g., https://covidtracking.com/race. 6 See, e.g., www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-nurses/over-90000-health-workers-infected- with-covid-19-worldwide-nurses-group-idUSKBN22I1XH. 7 E/C.12/2020/1, para. 3. 8 General comment No. 36 (2018), para. 2. 9 See A/HRC/20/26. 10 Available at https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/1246098663174266882?s=20. 11 See, e.g., contribution from Spain. 3 A/HRC/46/34 when the meanings of cultural expressions were heightened, those who produce arts and culture were finding their work increasingly difficult. Urgent action is needed to resolve this tension and guarantee the cultural rights of all. 6. In preparation for writing the present report, the Special Rapporteur circulated, jointly with other special procedure mandate holders, a call for input on protecting human rights during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, to be submitted by June 2020.12 She was pleased that 62 contributions from States, national human rights institutions and civil society replied specifically to questions posed in relation to her mandate. She also held two virtual expert meetings in November 2020, one organized with Safe Havens and the Museum of Movements, and another with the Artists at Risk Connection. These gatherings brought together cultural rights defenders and experts from nearly all regions of the world and from many fields. 13 She also sought input from diverse global experts, and thanks all who contributed to the report. II. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and responses to it, on cultural rights 7. The enjoyment of every single right covered by the Special Rapporteur’s mandate has been gravely affected by the pandemic and by some of the responses to it. The impacts vary widely and depend on, among other things, the efficacy of public health responses, and economic factors. In many contexts, culture sectors have been among those hardest hit by the crisis.14 Some experts have warned of irreversible cultural catastrophe if concerted, effective and adequately resourced action is not taken to avert such an outcome immediately, and consistently, as the world emerges from the pandemic.15 The consequences will be especially severe in the short and medium terms, but may have significant long-term effects. A cultural rights approach to these issues is absolutely necessary. Government responses must make clear the value of arts and culture and their importance for the enjoyment of human rights. The cultural rights commitments of States under international law require them to take action so as to avoid catastrophe but also to lead to cultural renewal as an essential component of any efforts to build back better. These are not simply wise policy choices but a question of international legal obligation. Comprehensive global and national inventories of cultural rights effects should be carried out around the world by Governments, in consultation with civil society, so as to organize comprehensive policy responses. A short survey of selected impacts follows. 8. Any meaningful human rights account of pandemic impacts must begin with those affected by the disease itself. Many leading cultural figures who are irreplaceable have died due to COVID-19, such as Cameroonian Afro-jazz legend Manu Dibango, “the original Giant of African Music”;16 Chinese film director