World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, 21 May

World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, 21 May

Declaration for culture

In a bid to change this, in September 2022, delegations from 150 States gathered in Mexico for MONDIACULT 2022, the largest world conference devoted to culture in the last 40 years.

They unanimously adopted the historic Declaration for Culture affirming culture as a “global public good” and calling for it to be integrated “as a specific goal in its own right” in the development agenda beyond 2030.

The text defines a set of cultural rights that need to be taken into account in public policies. These range from the social and economic rights of artists to artistic freedom, the right of indigenous communities to safeguard their ancestral knowledge, and the protection and promotion of cultural and natural heritage.

It also calls for substantial regulation of the digital sector, notably of the major platforms, for the benefit of online cultural diversity, artists’ intellectual property rights and fair access to content for all.