A/HRC/14/36 IV. Areas of concern and priority issues for the mandate 42. The present chapter contains an overview of the main issues the independent expert proposes to address as a priority in the course of her mandate, in addition to the proposals made above to further define the conceptual and legal framework of cultural rights. The independent expert is not suggesting that she will have the capacity to address all these issues in full detail, nor that she will confine herself only to these issues, as this will also depend upon her resources and opportunities. 43. For each issue, the independent expert, as requested in resolution 10/23 of the Human Rights Council, will seek to identify best practices and possible obstacles for the realization of cultural rights. She will work in cooperation with States to foster the formulation and adoption of measures at the local, national, regional and international levels aimed at the promotion and protection of cultural rights through concrete proposals enhancing subregional, regional and international cooperation in that regard. She will integrate a gender and disabilities perspective into her work, and in more general terms, address the situation of disadvantaged and marginalized groups in the enjoyment of cultural rights. Depending on available resources, she also proposes to organize consultations, in particular regional consultations on some of these issues. A. Cultural rights, globalization of exchanges and of information, and development processes 44. There is a growing perception that globalization leads to cultural homogenization. This raises the question of how best to assess the accuracy of such a perception and what measures, if any, are required to ensure the enjoyment of cultural rights in this context. 45. UNESCO addresses this issue in its 2009 World Report. Rather than understanding globalization as a “unidirectional and unidimensional process, driven by a Westerndominated global market economy and tending to standardize, streamline and transnationalize in ways inimical to cultural diversity”,39 the report proposes an understanding of globalization as a multidirectional and multidimensional process. According to the report “globalization can be described in terms of the increasing ‘flows’ of virtually everything that characterizes contemporary life: capital, commodities, knowledge, information, ideas, people, beliefs and so on. These flows — transiting essentially through the media, communication networks and commerce — consist of an ever-increasing volume of cultural goods, services and communications, including language and educational content”.40 46. It is important to bear in mind that some societies and communities are more vulnerable to, and marginalized by this process than others and that concerns about the impact of globalization on cultural rights are expressed in both developing and developed countries. It is also important not to underestimate the anxiety and tensions that rapid cultural changes may cause, especially when they are felt to be imposed. Here, several points must be taken into consideration. First, intercultural exchanges and therefore mutual integration have always existed between societies and communities through information, commerce and migration. Second, the extent to which anxiety and tensions related to cultural changes are felt varies amongst individuals within the same community, for example amongst generations. Third, culture being a dynamic and living process, taking 39 40 GE.10-12440 p. 13. Ibid., p. 14. 15