A/HRC/25/49 specific cultural interpretative frameworks.27 Hence, actions in the cultural sphere facilitate cultural interaction and understanding and can help design new cultural landscapes, encompassing and reflective of the plurality of culturally diverse perspectives. 48. Transitional justice strategies and reconciliation policies in divided societies should therefore not ignore cultural rights, as enshrined in article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. All persons have the right to access, participate in, enjoy and contribute to culture, and in particular cultural heritage, which encompasses both history and memory (see A/HRC/17/38, paras. 5 and 8). Artists should be able to articulate their voices; the right to freedom of artistic expression and creativity must be fully respected and protected (see A/HRC/23/34). More widely, cultural rights call for the implementation of policies promoting cultural interaction and understanding between people and communities, the sharing of perspectives about the past and the design of a cultural landscape that is reflective of cultural diversity. IV. Memorialization practices: specific challenges 49. Governments play a key role in framing the perception of the past. Unfortunately, too frequently they initiate top-down projects resulting in the imposition of unilateral or partial visions of history. A. Victims, perpetrators and heroes 50. Following conflict, the definition of victims and perpetrators is a major political and symbolic issue. Because memorialization is the site of conflicting narratives, it is important to guard against black and white definitions of victims and perpetrators. There are often dissenting voices within groups of victims, especially when groups of victims also killed each other. In addition, perpetrators tend to be somewhat invisible or at least minimally defined on many sites.28 Moreover, when invited into the discussion, perpetrators too adopt the position of a victim. 51. The debate concerning The Eye that Cries monument in Lima, which lists the names of victims of the civil war, is emblematic. The question arose as to whether 41 jailed members of the Shining Path, considered by a significant part of the population to be terrorists, who were killed in the repression of a prison riot, could be classified as victims. The controversy was intense. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights considered that, in accordance with international human rights law, those killed extrajudicially, including criminals, should be considered victims. Ironically, the 41 names had already been included on the monument, but no one took any notice before the ruling of the Court. Sharply polarized opinions regarding whose names should be included halted the completion of the monument. 52. Some memorialization processes do promote a plurality of narratives within the same monument or history museum. For instance, the Museum of Medellin in Colombia, which is nearing completion, aims to present a history of massive violations of human rights, regardless of which groups perpetrators belonged to: guerrillas, paramilitaries, drug traffickers or the army. 27 28 International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, “From memory to action, a toolkit for memorialization in post-conflict societies”, p. 3. Bickford,“Memoryworks/memory works”. 11