A/HRC/61/49 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 17 February 2026 Original: English Human Rights Council Sixty-first session 23 February–2 April 2026 Agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Nature conservation and cultural rights Report of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Alexandra Xanthaki* Summary In the present report to the Human Rights Council, submitted in accordance with Council resolution 55/5, the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Alexandra Xanthaki, focuses on nature conservation and cultural rights. The Special Rapporteur notes that the protection of biodiversity necessitates cultural diversity, cautions against the fortress conservation model that has led to severe cultural rights violations and urges States to ensure that their bodies, as well as donors, apply a cultural rights-based approach, favouring special measures, wide consultation and participation, human rights impact assessments and judicial guarantees for cultural rights in nature conservation. * The present document was submitted to the conference services for processing after the deadline so as to include the most recent information. GE.26-01310 (E) 160226 170226