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 increasing 11 as a coping mechanism, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 See https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html (accessed on 6 February 2021). “ILO monitor: COVID-19 and the world of work – second edition” (7 April 2020). E/C.12/2020/1, para. 1. Karima Bennoune, “Lest we should sleep: COVID-19 and human rights”, American Journal of International Law, vol. 114, No. 4 (October 2020). See, e.g., https://covidtracking.com/race. See, e.g., www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-nurses/over-90000-health-workers-infectedwith-covid-19-worldwide-nurses-group-idUSKBN22I1XH. E/C.12/2020/1, para. 3. General comment No. 36 (2018), para. 2. See A/HRC/20/26. Available at https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/1246098663174266882?s=20. See, e.g., contribution from Spain. 3