A/HRC/61/49/Add.1 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 20 February 2026 Original: English Human Rights Council Sixty-first session 23 February–2 April 2026 Agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Visit to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Report of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Alexandra Xanthaki*, ** Summary The Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights conducted a visit to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic from 19 to 29 November 2024. The purpose of the visit was to discuss, in a spirit of cooperation and constructive dialogue, how the Government implements cultural rights. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur underlines strengths in, and obstacles to, realizing cultural rights in the country, with a specific focus on the impact of development policies. In the State’s policies and practices to foster development and improve the livelihoods of people, a cultural rights-based approach is lacking, with important consequences for the most marginalized. The right of people to meaningfully take part in the decision-making processes that have an impact on their cultural rights is largely reduced to information and mitigation processes, far from the right to free, prior and informed consent that they should enjoy. A shift in perspective is needed, in order to understand culture from a bottom-up, rather than a top-down, approach. The latter approach feeds a worrying process of assimilation currently under way in the country at various levels. Space for civic expression and participation needs to be enlarged and cultural diversity valued without bias against non-Lao-Tai ethnic groups. * The present document was submitted to the conference services for processing after the deadline so as to include the most recent information. ** The summary of the report is being circulated in all official languages. The report itself, which is annexed to the summary, is being circulated in the language of submission only. GE.26-01463 (E) 190226 190226