A/HRC/43/50 and other special procedures. Mr. Mkhaitir stressed the important role played by national and international lawyers who represented him despite significant risks associated with doing so. He also suggested that it was vital for the United Nations system to speak out publicly and rapidly in cases such as his, both to obtain justice and combat isolation. The outcome in his case is a reminder that concerted efforts by national and international human rights defenders, including cultural rights defenders, the United Nations system, nongovernmental organizations and Governments, can produce positive results. The resilience and inspiring commitment of cultural rights defenders is epitomized by Mr. Mkhaitir who, though he has now been forced into exile and still receives threats, is determined to continue his cultural rights and other human rights work. V. Conclusions and recommendations A. Conclusions 72. We owe cultural rights defenders a significant debt of gratitude for the work they do to defend human rights and ensure beauty, colour, dignity, expression, celebration, thought, meaning and memory in our world; for the way they challenge us to think and re-think by striving for cultural rights. One night in October 2019, as a curfew blanketed the city of Santiago, opera singer Ayleen Jovita Romero peacefully protested by singing from her window to her neighbours. 52 She sang El Derecho de Vivir en Paz (The right to live in peace), a song made famous by singer Victor Jara before he was murdered following the 1973 military coup. Cultural rights defenders promote access to culture and creative responses in the face of human rights violations and strife, and can bring hope to others in our challenging times. 73. We should remember all those who have fallen in defence of cultural rights. However, let us not wait until we are mourning the deaths of cultural rights defenders before we determine how to support them. Let us honour those who have fallen by supporting and protecting those who continue their work. 74. This must be done by recognizing and popularizing the work of cultural rights defenders, human rights defenders who defend cultural rights in accordance with international standards, and all of their many contributions to ensuring the right of all to take part in cultural life without discrimination, including the right to access and enjoy heritage, and artistic and scientific freedoms. This must be done by acknowledging the inherent importance of culture and cultural rights, and work to defend them in accordance with international standards, and by recognizing their centrality for implementing other human rights, achieving sustainable development and responding effectively and in a human rights-compliant manner to the climate emergency. 75. Such efforts must also include full implementation of standards on the protection of cultural rights and relevant international standards on human rights defenders, including the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which applies fully to cultural rights defenders, and the enforcement of national laws in compliance with those standards. In addition, those efforts require full recognition of the specific risks and challenges that cultural rights defenders face and their particular needs in context; full consultation of and participation by cultural rights defenders in the development of programmes to benefit them; the adoption of gender and disability perspectives, and an inclusive perspective generally reflecting the needs of the diverse ecosystem of cultural rights defenders; and the speedy actualization of the recommendations of all relevant United Nations mechanisms, including the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. 76. Cultural rights will not realize themselves. The work of cultural rights defenders to protect and promote these rights is urgently needed in today’s fraught world, as is our collective work to support them in doing so. 52 16 20 Minutos, “Una soprano canta a viva voz como protesta contra el toque de queda en Chile y desata una ovación en el barrio”, 8 November 2019.