A/HRC/40/53
the economic, medical or social benefits arising from the use of their traditional knowledge
or practices.17
10.
Another area of national legislation contributing to the implementation of cultural
rights relates to the recognition of diversity. Some submissions mentioned changes to
provide better protection for minority and indigenous peoples and their cultural resources,
for example in Colombia, Norway and Morocco.18 In these countries, recognition of
minorities has also had an impact on education. In Morocco, language trainings were
organised for administrators, civil servants and journalists.19 The immediate past
Government of the United States of America 20 and the current Government of Canada 21
have since 2010 made pledges to better recognize and implement the rights of Indigenous
peoples. These commitments need to be followed with legal implementation, the
development of processes to ensure free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples
and the creation of effective monitoring mechanisms.
11.
In a number of countries, National Human Rights Institutions have been at the
forefront of defending cultural rights, receiving complaints about alleged violations,
advocating for changes in laws and procedures to better respect these rights and
contributing to their monitoring both at the national level and through the submission of
information to the United Nations treaty monitoring bodies and the Universal Periodic
Review. The Special Rapporteur welcomes these efforts and encourages National Human
Rights Institutions to further invest in the development of monitoring and implementation
tools for cultural rights generally, and for the recommendations of the mandate, in
particular.
12.
In some countries, civil society actors can file legal petitions against undue
restrictions of cultural rights. This has been done in certain instances with regard to access
to cultural heritage sites or to information about archaeological excavations,22 politically
motivated interferences in history writing and teaching, and fundamentalist and extremist
efforts to reduce sexual and reproductive rights.23
13.
In the United Kingdom, the organization Southall Black Sisters which intervened in
an important case regarding gender segregated religious schools24 noted that “lawyers drew
extensively upon the expert reports from both Special Rapporteurs [in the field of cultural
rights] to understand the connections between fundamentalist views on education and the
use of gender segregation as a specific tool with which to disempower young Muslim girls”
and more generally that the reports enabled them “to mobilise support and influence public
policy on gender segregation in the educational context”.25
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Submission from the Defensoría del Pueblo de Colombia, p. 1-2.
Submissions from the Government of Colombia about its laws 1381 of 2010; from the Government of
Norway on Norway’s protection of the Sami and national minorities; from the Government of
Morocco about its law on linguistic pluralism, including in school curricula and training of public
agents, p. 7-9.
IRCAM, §4.
President Obama, “Announcement of U.S. Support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples – Initiatives to Promote the Government-to-Government Relationship
& Improve the Lives of Indigenous Peoples”, 16 December 2010,
www.state.gov/documents/organization/194027.pdf. See also the perspective of the UN Special
Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples on her recent visit to the United States,
A/HRC/36/46/Add.1.
Speech delivered by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, House of Commons, 14 February 2018. At-sikhata: nation of Yamassee-Moors submission.
Emek Shaveh, p. 4, 6.
Submission from Agenda 2030 Feminista.
HM Chief Inspector of Education Children’s Services and Skills v the Interim Executive Board of AlHijrah School, 2017 EWCA Civ 1787.
Southall Black Sisters.
23