A/HRC/37/55 I. Introduction 1. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights focuses on the potential of actions in the field of arts and culture to promote fuller enjoyment of human rights, including by championing universality of human rights and dignity, embodying and embracing cultural diversity, challenging discrimination, contributing to reconciliation and addressing radical ideologies incompatible with human rights. She builds on the work done by the mandate on cultural rights concerning historical and memorial narratives in divided and post-conflict societies (A/68/296 and A/HRC/25/49) and the right to artistic freedom (A/HRC/23/34). 2. The exercise of cultural rights is fundamental to creating and maintaining peaceful and just societies and to promoting enjoyment of other universal human rights. Humanity dignifies, restores and reimagines itself through creating, performing, preserving and revising its cultural and artistic life. Throughout human history and in every society, people have improved their lives through engagement with creative and expressive forms. Cultural heritage, cultural practices and the arts are resources for marshalling attention to urgent concerns, addressing conflicts, reconciling former enemies, resisting oppression, memorializing the past, and imagining and giving substance to a more rights-friendly future. People often express values and ethical commitments through aesthetic forms and processes. 3. The transformative power of arts and culture lies in the nature of the aesthetic experience, which links cognitive faculties with sense and emotions, creating platforms rich in potential for learning, reflection, experimentation, and the embrace of complexity. Artistic and cultural practices can offer experiences of non-coercive, constructive meaningmaking and empowerment that can contribute to reaching a wide range of human rights goals. 4. It is because cultural and artistic expressions are powerful that they are at risk of being targeted, manipulated or controlled by those in power or in search of power. Actions in the field of culture can accordingly serve to maintain divisions in society or contribute to overcoming them. Increasingly in recent years, policymakers, practitioners and educators from diverse fields are recognizing the potential of culture and the arts in questioning the representation of society and addressing its contemporary challenges such as exclusion and violence. Excellent work in this field — excellent in terms of the strength of its contribution to furthering human rights — is now being done the world over and includes artist-based productions of great virtuosity, participatory and inclusive work with local populations and public rituals and ceremonies, sometimes animated by cultural traditions. 5. In her report, the Special Rapporteur seeks to identify the contribution cultural initiatives make to creating, developing and maintaining peaceful and inclusive societies in which all human rights can be more fully realized. She also considers the necessary preconditions for enabling and maximizing the contribution of these actions in the field of culture. In addition, she examines the responsibilities of States, institutions and other relevant stakeholders for creating and maintaining the conditions in which everyone can shape right-respecting societies through their full access to, participation in and contribution to cultural life. II. Socially engaged cultural and art-based initiatives: goals and challenges 6. Not all artistic and cultural practices aim at shaping more inclusive and peaceful societies conducive to the realization of human rights. Social engagement towards that goal is a possibility for artists and cultural workers, but not a requirement. In some contexts, including those characterized by violence and repression, extreme censorship, stigma regarding artistic expression or discrimination against some artists and cultural practitioners, such as women, merely engaging in artistic and cultural practice can have deep meaning for and an impact on human rights, regardless of the specific content or aims. 3