A/HRC/46/34 At a minimum, the recommendation of UNESCO that Governments allocate 1 per cent of total expenditures for culture must be respected, including during a public health crisis. The Special Rapporteur notes that some civil society groups are pushing to ensure that all COVID-19 recovery packages allocate at least 2 to 7 per cent of the overall fund to provide essential relief funding to artists and cultural institutions, a target range that deserves serious consideration. Culture and arts funding should be integrated into all COVID-19 relief and stimulus packages, with the specific nature of cultural and artistic work, including that of the self-employed, freelancers and part-time workers, accounted for. 55. Adequate support for cultural sectors, institutions and industries during the pandemic is essential. The Executive Director of the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies, Magdalena Moreno Mujica, noted to the Special Rapporteur that “the closures have meant that other means of income generation have also been lost. This has significantly increased the demand for financial assistance, with public budgets for culture tighter than ever.” This is another reason why increased culture budgets are critical. Adequate, direct support for cultural workers, cultural practitioners and artists themselves is also critical now; efforts to provide such support should include a full consideration of the needs of particularly vulnerable sectors, such as young artists beginning their careers, artists with disabilities and artists outside of capital cities. Moreover, it is essential that all of this be undertaken with a cultural rights perspective. Such an approach must ensure the cultural rights of everyone, including both artists and cultural workers, and also those in the society around them. 56. Moreover, all such funding and support programmes should be conceived and administered in consultation with, and with the participation of, those working in the relevant sectors as well as diverse members of the public who engage with their work. All such measures also require ongoing evaluation to determine effectiveness and compliance with cultural rights obligations. The Special Rapporteur was pleased to receive reports of stakeholder consultations from Chile, Cyprus, Finland and many others. 57. While the Special Rapporteur recognizes the profound difficulties and resource challenges faced by many Governments in view of the pandemic, she stresses that they must all do more across the board to guarantee enjoyment of cultural rights, nationally and internationally, at a time when these rights have never been needed more. There are certain basic questions to answer, such as how to guarantee access to culture and participation in cultural life even when cultural spaces are closed, and how to guarantee the financial survival of cultural industries, institutions and sectors so as to preserve forums which are critical for the enjoyment of cultural rights by all.138 58. The Special Rapporteur supports government agencies and ministries responsible for culture that strive to ensure that budgets are increased and allocated to culture. She calls on all Governments to support these bodies and adequately invest in culture as required by their international legal obligations. 59. Responses to COVID-19 incorporating a cultural rights perspective should be envisaged across several time frames. In the short term, there must be urgent efforts to guarantee financial support for artists, cultural practitioners and cultural spaces and institutions so as to get through lockdowns and closures, as well as provision of safety nets for cultural workers, such as insurance or access to universal health care. The centrality of culture as a coping mechanism in these times offers a vital advocacy tool for such measures. 60. We need nothing less than a global cultural plan, complemented by regional, national and local plans, to keep alive the cultural life that helps keep us alive. 139 The global plan should be locally driven and globally supported, resourced and coordinated. 61. In the short and medium terms, we must continue to safely reconfigure public cultural life in human rights-respecting ways. This includes in digital spaces where possible or outdoors with physical distancing, masks and other necessary safety measures, with offerings for all sectors of society, including persons with disabilities. Essential human rights 138 139 16 See contribution from Spain. See www.uclg.org/sites/default/files/decalogue_for_the_post_covid-19_era.pdf.