A/71/317 While cultural diversity is to be celebrated, cultural rights, being firmly embedde d in the universal human rights framework, cannot be invoked to excuse human rights violations, discrimination or violence. Cultural rights include the right to cultural syncretism: human history demonstrates that cultures are often mixed and are not fixed in time. In challenging intentional destruction of cultural heritage, the Special Rapporteur opposes the application of coercion, violence and discrimination to impose cultural change in violation of human rights. 13. Much of what we consider heritage is the result of continuous recreation throughout history, with each layer adding to its meaning and value. As stressed many times by the former Special Rapporteur, the mandate on cultural rights has been established to protect not culture and cultural herit age per se, but rather the conditions allowing all people, without discrimination, to access, participate in and contribute to cultural life through a process of continuous development. These conditions are greatly jeopardized when cultural heritage is at risk or destroyed. Therefore, prima facie, destruction of cultural heritage must be considered a violation of cultural rights. However, there may be cases where monuments celebrate the memory of past human rights violations, or promote ideas, concepts or actions that are no longer acceptable, such as violence and discrimination (A/HRC/25/49). The fate of such monuments should be addressed within the human rights framework, in particular within the context of the standards pertaining to limitations on cultural rights (general comment No. 21 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, para. 19; A/HRC/14/36, para. 35). To these conditions should be added the imperative to conduct in-depth consultation, including on the diversity of interpretations of the heritage, alternatives to its destruction and the means of memorializing it. III. The international legal framework 14. The right of access to and enjoyment of all forms of cultural heritage is guaranteed by international human rights law, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, deriving its legal basis, in particular, from the right to take part in cultural life, the right of members of minorities to enjoy their own culture and the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination and to maintain, control, protect and develop cultural heritage. Other human rights must also be taken into consideration, in particular the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, the right to education, the economic rights of the many people who earn a living through tourism related to such heritage and the right to development. The right of access to and enjoyment of cultural heritage includes the right of individuals and collectivities to, inter alia, know, understand, enter, visit, make use of, maintain, exchange elements of and develop cultural heritage, as well as to benefit from the cultural heritage and the creation of others. It also includes the right to participate in the identification, interpretation and development of cultural heritage, as well as in the design and implementation of preservation and safeguard policies and programmes (see A/HRC/17/38 and Corr.1, paras. 78-79). 15. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has explained that States’ obligations to respect and protect freedoms, cultural heritage and diversity are interconnected and the obligation to ensure the right to participate in cultural life 6/24 16-13742