A/77/290 the support of the Institute for Communities and Society at Brunel University London. 5 She also held individual meetings with several additional experts and development practitioners. In order to collect views and experiences, a questionnaire was distributed widely in March 2022. Fifty-two responses were received, including from States, national human rights institutions, academics, civil society organizations and other international organizations. 6 7. The present report is the first of two consecutive studies on development and cultural rights by the Special Rapporteur. It focuses on mainstreaming cultural rights through the 2030 Agenda. A second report, to be presented to the General Assembly in 2023, will examine the issue in the context of the policies and methodologies adopted by large trade and development agencies, with a view to identifying and bridging the gaps. II. Legal and policy framework 8. The 2030 Agenda is firmly anchored in human rights. States have made commitments to respecting, protecting and fulfilling cultural rights in a plethora of human rights instruments. The strongest references are to be found in article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 15 of t he International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which recognize the right of everyone to participate freely in cultural life, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. The need for substantive equality in sustainable development is based on article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and on the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. 9. As reiterated many times by this mandate, cultural rights protect the right of each person individually, in community with others and collectively, to develop and express their humanity, their world views and the meanings they give to their existence and their development, including through, inter alia, v alues, beliefs, convictions, languages, knowledge and the arts, institutions and ways of life. Cultural rights also protect the cultural heritage of the individual and groups and the resources that enable such identification and development processes. 10. Cultural rights are therefore essential for the development of each person and community, their empowerment, and the construction of their respective identities in a sustainable cultural ecosystem. They are at the core of the definition of development itself. It is an illusion to believe that the goal to leave no one behind could be sought without full respect for cultural rights for all, on an equal basis. 11. Several provisions of international human rights law underline the close ties between development and cultural rights. The right of self-determination, recognized in common article 1 of both International Covenants, is the right of all peoples to “freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”. Article 1 of the Declaration on the Right to Development, for its part, specifies that the right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute __________________ 5 6 22-12659 The Special Rapporteur thanks all participants for their valuable contributions, and in particular Dorcas Taylor, Colin Luoma, Rebecca Gleig and Raquel Carneiro Fernandes from the University of Sussex law clinics, for their research collaboration and assistance on specific themes. A detailed list of participants in the expert consultations is available on the web page of the mandate at www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-cultural-rights. The contributions received are available on the web page of the mandate and are referred to throughout the report by the name of the submitting stakeholder. 5/24