A/HRC/55/44 Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. A first report on the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications contained the conclusion that the normative content of that right included (a) access to the benefits of science and its applications, including scientific knowledge, by everyone, without discrimination; (b) opportunities for all to contribute to the scientific enterprise and freedom indispensable for scientific research; (c) participation of individuals and communities in decision-making and the related right to information; and (d) an enabling environment fostering the conservation, development and diffusion of science and technology.6 That report was followed by two reports, one on the impact of copyright policy7 and the other on the impact of patent policy8 on the realization of cultural rights. Those reports and their recommendations are still relevant today. 7. Since science and technology are crucial for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, the report of the Special Rapporteur on development and cultural rights: the principles is also relevant. In that report, she recalled that people and peoples must be the primary beneficiaries of sustainable development processes and that such development should be culturally sensitive, self-determined and community led. She underlined the close ties between development and cultural rights as set out in international human rights law, declarations and resolutions.9 8. Within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), several important recommendations have been adopted, notably the Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers, in 2017, and the Recommendation on Open Science and the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, both adopted in 2021. One important outcome of the Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers was a definition of the terms ��science” (para. 1) and “the sciences” (para. 2), and a clear recognition that research and development are not carried in isolation, but should be aimed at the well-being of people in the present and the future and the fulfilment of the goals of the United Nations, while giving sufficient attention to the advancement of science and scientific knowledge per se. Such understanding that science should promote human rights and global justice is the basis of the present report. 9. In 2020, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights confirmed that science was a part of culture and that the right protected by article 15 (1) (b) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was a right to participate in and to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress, in terms of both knowledge and application. 10 10. The Special Rapporteur also stresses the importance, under international human rights law, of the principle of participation for all based, in particular, on article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights but also on article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights regarding participation in cultural life. The cultural element of participation is often forgotten, however, and should be strengthened. Participation is meaningless if it is not embedded in one’s own context and does not integrate people and peoples with their identities, values, aspirations and resources. That is what community-led development means. Furthermore, people involved in scientific endeavours contribute crucially to vivid civic spaces. The cultural element of participation should therefore be fully considered when implementing the guidelines for States on the effective implementation of the right to participate in public affairs, endorsed by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 39/11. 11. Of particular relevance is the additional protection granted in international law to marginalized and vulnerable groups that face structural discrimination, including women and girls, persons with disabilities or living in poverty, members of minority communities and Indigenous Peoples. On the basis of their right to self-determination, Indigenous Peoples have the right to participate fully, if they so choose, in the cultural and public life of the wider society and to maintain, protect and develop all manifestations of their cultures, including 6 7 8 9 10 4 A/HRC/20/26, para. 25. A/HRC/28/57. A/70/279 and A/70/279/Corr.1. A/77/290, paras. 11–15 and 98. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 25 (2020), paras. 8 and 11. GE.24-01813