A/HRC/20/26/Add.1 increase access to culture by all, in particular youth, persons with disabilities and people with low incomes; support extended to initiatives aimed at promoting intercultural exchanges, cultural diversity and participation in cultural life; and a variety of measures for the protection and promotion of cultural rights of recognized national minorities. 88. The Independent Expert appreciates in particular legislation, in some regions, guaranteeing the rights of recognized minorities to bilingual schooling and bilingual topographical signs, as well as the use of minority languages in judicial and administrative procedures. She also commends the codification of a written Romani language. 89. The Independent Expert further welcomes Government initiatives, such as the introduction in some public media broadcasts of subtitles and sign language, as well as transmissions of broadcasts in official minority languages. 90. The Independent Expert believes, however, that further steps are needed. Measures to promote cultural diversity and cultural rights in Austria remain compartmentalized and lack an institutional framework that would facilitate building upon valuable experience. Partly due to this, the implementation of the rights of persons belonging to minorities and disadvantaged groups in the fields of education, culture and language as well as their rights not be discriminated against and to participate in the life of society, remains insufficient. 91. The Independent Expert recommends that consideration be given to establishing a unified framework and an institutional body, at the level of the Federal Government, to promote cultural diversity and intercultural understanding, to oversee all cultural heritage matters and to promote the right of all to participate equally in and contribute to cultural life in Austria. 92. The Independent Expert observes with concern a tendency amongst some policy-makers and implementers to treat Austria’s rich multi-ethnic, multilinguistic, and multi-religious composition as a problem needing to be resolved. While Austria recognizes the value of cultural diversity, government policies do not yet approach the country’s rich diversity as an invaluable resource from which all of Austrian society could, and indeed should, benefit. Policies should aim at mainstreaming the cultural diversity and heritage of the country’s diverse populations, rather than simply at assigning rights to particular people and groups in a parallel fashion. 93. The Independent Expert emphasizes the fact that ensuring people’s cultural rights is about empowering individuals and communities to create culture as continuously evolving ways of life, each cultural community being equally valued. 94. The Independent Expert recommends that the Government consider addressing the issue of integration together with cultural diversity, either within a new entity delinked from the Ministry of the Interior or including this subject within the Federal Chancellery. 95. The Independent Expert encourages the Government to strengthen efforts to incorporate minority cultures and histories in all public schooling curricula, media and cultural activities; to promote intercultural competencies in all official institutions, and encourage competencies in minority languages, including Austrian sign language, amongst teachers and civil servants. Special efforts are required to ensure the cultural rights of the Roma people, including their full access, contribution and participation in cultural life. 96. The Independent Expert stresses that only recognized autochthonous minorities are granted particular rights which, however, they lose outside the specifically 20