A/HRC/43/50 culture they might not otherwise experience as displaced persons. 24 When President Trump suggested in January 2020 that the United States might target sites of cultural importance in the Islamic Republic of Iran, rapid response by individuals and organizations concerned with heritage protection elicited clarification that relevant international norms would instead be respected.25 31. The global Climate Heritage Network was launched in 2019 with the objective of foregrounding cultural dimensions of climate change and mobilizing the culture sector for climate action. III. International legal framework A. Cultural rights 32. The substantive cultural rights that cultural rights defenders work to protect and promote, including the right of all to take part in cultural life without discrimination, and artistic and scientific freedoms, are guaranteed by many provisions of international law. Such provisions include article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and related provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. These norms have been explained in detail by successive special rapporteurs.26 33. Cultural rights protect in particular (a) human creativity in all its diversity and the conditions for it to be exercised, developed and made accessible; (b) the free choice, expression and development of identities, which include the right to choose not to be a part of particular collectives, and 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 to conduct their own cultural practices; (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, including scientific knowledge, and to an individual’s own cultural heritage, and that of others; and (f) the rights to participate in the interpretation, elaboration and development of cultural heritage and in the reformulation of cultural identities (A/HRC/40/53, para. 15). 34. The Sustainable Development Goals are key to the work of cultural rights defenders and vice versa. Progress on human rights obligations and on the Goals are two sides of the same coin. Moreover, the safeguarding and promotion of culture contributes directly to many of the Goals – safe and sustainable cities, decent work and economic growth, reduced inequalities, the environment, the promotion of gender equality and peaceful and inclusive societies.27 The cultural rights defended by cultural rights defenders are also essential tools for implementing Goals explicitly referencing culture, such as target 4 of Goal 11, on strengthening efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage, and target 7 of Goal 4, which requires that States ensure education related to sustainable development, cultural diversity and culture’s contribution to sustainable development. 28 24 25 26 27 28 8 Catherine Cartier, “The storytellers of Syria: displaced women keep tradition and history alive with folktales”, The New Arab, 27 June 2018. See, e.g., Helen Stoilas, “Cultural heritage officials condemn Trump’s threats against Iranian sites”, The Art Newspaper, 6 January 2020; and Jake Johnson, “Iranians flood Twitter with photos of favorite cultural sites as Trump threatens them with destruction”, Common Dreams, 5 January 2020. See, e.g., ohchr.org/EN/Issues/CulturalRights/Pages/InternationalStandards.aspx; and A/74/255, paras. 19–31. Jyoti Hosagrahar, “Culture: at the heart of SDGs”, UNESCO Courier. Issue April–June, 2017. General Assembly resolution 70/1, annex.