A/74/255 I. Introduction 1. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur focuses on the critical role played by public spaces in the enjoyment of human rights, and particularly cultural rights. She also underlines the ways in which respect for cultural rights contributes to vibrant, meaningful and accessible public spaces. She stresses that many human righ ts guarantees contained in international instruments, notably those relating to cultural rights, must be understood as requiring the enjoyment of adequate public spaces by all, without discrimination. She therefore urges that the question of public space b e recognized as a human rights issue, and that a human rights approach which centres cultural rights should be taken to decision-making in these areas. 2. Since the establishment of the cultural rights mandate in 2009, mandate holders have developed a working definition of these rights. They protect, inter alia: (a) human creativity in all its diversity and the conditions for it to be exercised; (b) the free choice, expression and development of identities, which include the right to choose not to be a part of particular collectives, as well as the right to exit a collective, and to take part on an equal basis in the process of defining it; (c) the rights of individuals and groups to participate, or not to participate, in the cultural life of their choice; and (d) the right to interact and exchange, regardless of group affiliation and of frontiers; (e) the rights to enjoy and have access to the arts, to knowledge and to an individual’s own cultural heritage, as well as that of others; and (f) the rights to participate in the definition and implementation of policies and decisions that have an impact on the exercise of cultural rights (see A/HRC/37/55, para. 15; and E/C.12/GC/21, para. 15 (c)). Both mandate holders have regularly stressed that the purpose of the mandate is not to protect culture per se, but rather the conditions allowing all people, without discrimination, to access, participate in and contribute to cultural life in a continuously developing manner. 1 Moreover, they have made clear that cultural rights are embedded in the universal human rights framework and do not justify discrimination or violations of other internationally guaranteed human rights. 3. The existence of adequate and accessible public spaces that can be shared and enjoyed by all in equality and dignity is a sine qua non for the fulfilment of universal human rights, including cultural rights, many of which require possibilities for free expression and interaction in public spaces. 2 In particular, the rights to take part in cultural life without discrimination and freedom of artistic expression and creativity, as well as many other rights, including the freedoms of expression, assembly, association and religion or belief, the rights to development, education and adequate housing, and the rights of particular categories of persons such as persons with disabilities and women, cannot be enjoyed in the absence of such public spaces and of equal access to them. 4. Issues pertaining to public spaces have been raised by a variety of stakeholders, who have addressed them mainly within their sector or through the perspective of a specific group. The Special Rapporteur notes that these approaches have often not been holistic or human rights-based. Accordingly, the purpose of the present report is to try to synthesize some of the work in the field and to provide an overview from a human rights perspective, offering a catalogue of key questions regarding access to public spaces for all, the challenges faced by actors across the cultural ecosystem when accessing such spaces, the strategies they use to enjoy them and the impact this __________________ 1 2 4/24 See A/HRC/14/36, para. 9; A/67/287, para. 7; A/HRC/31/59 and A/HRC/31/59/Corr.1, para. 9; and A/HRC/40/53, para. 15. On the social roles of public spaces, see Eric Klinenberg, Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life (Random House, 2018). 19-13014