A/HRC/52/35 63. Libraries are important common spaces where migrants can interact with the local population. Many libraries offer specific services to migrants, including general information about administrative practices, access to information and communications technologies, to community and support networks to counter social isolation, and to a variety of resources for integration, education and cultural enrichment. 56 Many of these libraries record and disseminate information about the cultural resources of migrants, which helps the local population understand more about the lives of migrants. An example of this is the two-year intercultural storytelling project, Refugee Lives: a Million Stories, initiated and led by the Roskilde Libraries in Denmark, in collaboration with the public libraries in Malmö in Sweden and Cologne in Germany and the Future Library in Athens. The project includes more than 600 stories from refugees who have fled to the European Union in recent years, creating a digital library of lived experiences. Similarly, the Services to Immigrants and Refugees team of the Denver Public Library in the United States of America created an audiovisual exhibit entitled Mementos From Home, which featured immigrants recording stories about items they had brought with them to the United States and what those objects mean to them. 64. In the global survey on library services for displaced populations, carried out by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, 57 Veria Central Public Library in Greece reported that it had organized programming that included cooking lessons in the library with families from Greece and the Syrian Arab Republic. 65. “Sesame” is an experimental research project led by the Musée de la Civilisation de Québec that aims not only to improve access to the Museum, but also to involve people who experience particular realities (situations of exclusion, marginalization, disability, etc.) in the design of exhibitions. By working and collaborating with the individuals and communities concerned, the Museum documents historical aspects of their reality, develops its collections to reflect them, and sets up contexts for artistic co-creation. As part of this project, L’Espace Rencontres makes it possible to take account of the often unknown reality of people living in particular situations, including migrants. 66. One important way of acknowledging the cultural backgrounds and histories of migrants is through migration museums and other memory, history and cultural heritage institutions. That is already done in numerous countries, but should be encouraged worldwide, not only at a national but also at a local level. Such activities are significant both for migrants themselves (individually and collectively) and for people in the societies to which the migrants have come. 67. Intangible cultural heritage, including oral traditions, histories and life stories, are not valued equally with tangible heritage and are usually performed outside museums and galleries. Music, dance, gastronomy and dress are living, everyday heritage resources that are often disregarded by States. That is a remnant of an outdated dichotomy between high arts and popular arts. Exhibiting cultural expressions, such as oral stories and storytelling, in museums and exhibitions confirms their rightful position next to other cultural outputs and provides opportunities for empathizing with the personal stories of migrants and fostering intercultural understanding. Such visibility of migrant cultures should take place both in generic exhibitions in museums and in exhibitions specifically on the history of migration and events specifically for the migrant communities in question.58 The necessity to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage of migrants, a clear obligation of States, pushes for measures to enable migrant communities to counteract their invisibility in the official heritage discourse by encouraging the inclusion of groups holding distinct cultural identities in the wider historical narrative of the societies in which they play a role.59 68. Many admirable such activities have recently been created for people displaced from Ukraine. For example, the Provincial Public Library in Krakow, Poland, prepared a library support and assistance plan to support the needs of their Ukrainian community. Such 56 57 58 59 14 See submission by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. The resulting guidelines are to be published. See submission by the Culture Committee of United Cities and Local Governments. Danilo Giglitto, Luigina Ciolfi and Wolfgang Bosswick, “Building a bridge: opportunities and challenges for intangible cultural heritage at the intersection of institutions, civic society, and migrant communities”. GE.23-01011