E/C.12/GC/21 obligation to respect requires States parties to refrain from interfering, directly or indirectly, with the enjoyment of the right to take part in cultural life. The obligation to protect requires States parties to take steps to prevent third parties from interfering in the right to take part in cultural life. Lastly, the obligation to fulfil requires States parties to take appropriate legislative, administrative, judicial, budgetary, promotional and other measures aimed at the full realization of the right enshrined in article 15, paragraph 1 (a), of the Covenant.48 49. The obligation to respect includes the adoption of specific measures aimed at achieving respect for the right of everyone, individually or in association with others or within a community or group: (a) To freely choose their own cultural identity, to belong or not to belong to a community, and have their choice respected; This includes the right not to be subjected to any form of discrimination based on cultural identity, exclusion or forced assimilation,49 and the right of all persons to express their cultural identity freely and to exercise their cultural practices and way of life. States parties should consequently ensure that their legislation does not impair the enjoyment of these rights through direct or indirect discrimination. (b) To enjoy freedom of opinion, freedom of expression in the language or languages of their choice, and the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds and forms including art forms, regardless of frontiers of any kind; This implies the right of all persons to have access to, and to participate in, varied information exchanges, and to have access to cultural goods and services, understood as vectors of identity, values and meaning.50 (c) To enjoy the freedom to create, individually, in association with others, or within a community or group, which implies that States parties must abolish censorship of cultural activities in the arts and other forms of expression, if any; This obligation is closely related to the duty of States parties, under article 15, paragraph 3, “to respect the freedom indispensable for scientific research and creative activity”. (d) To have access to their own cultural and linguistic heritage and to that of others; In particular, States must respect free access by minorities to their own culture, heritage and other forms of expression, as well as the free exercise of their cultural identity and practices. This includes the right to be taught about one’s own culture as well as those of others.51 States parties must also respect the rights of indigenous peoples to their culture and heritage and to maintain and strengthen their spiritual relationship with their ancestral lands and other natural resources traditionally owned, occupied or used by them, and indispensable to their cultural life. 48 49 50 51 12 See general comments No. 13 (1990), paras. 46 and 47, No. 14 (2000), para. 33, No. 17 (2005), para. 28 and No. 18 (2005), para. 22. See also the Limburg Principles on the Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, para. 6. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, art. 31 Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, para. 8. Fribourg Declaration on Cultural Rights, arts. 6 (b) and 7 (b). GE.09-46922