A/80/278 56. The legal obligation to guarantee respect for human rights, including by private persons and companies, still falls on the shoulders of States, and they must take urgent immediate measures to preserve the creativity of all and limit the obstacles that AI poses to the various elements of this right (see A/HRC/59/32). Using the cultural rights approach is essential. B. The cultural rights approach to artificial intelligence 57. Adopting a cultural rights approach is essential to addressing the shortcomings of AI. So far, all initiatives on AI, including legal ones, have, unfortunately, ignored cultural rights. 58. Cultural rights relate to human creativity in all its diversity and to the conditions for it to be exercised, developed and made accessible. They protect the development and expression of cultural identities. At their core, they empower individuals and groups to express their humanity, their worldviews and the meanings they attribute to their existence and development through various forms of human expression. Such forms of expression can include the arts, cultural heritage, languages, sciences, knowledge, convictions, religions and beliefs, sports and games, rites and ceremonies, production methods, technology, institutions and livelihoods, connections with nature and the environment, food and dress. They also encompass the rights to access and participate in heritage and resources that facilitate the processes of identification and development. 59. Cultural rights include, but are not restricted to, the right to artistic expression and creativity by recognized artists. They include the right of everyone to be creative in all fields of human life, in accordance with article 15 (3) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, on the freedom indispensable for creative activity. States have committed to respect and protect the freedom indispensable for creative activity, which is necessary in the workplace, in social interactions, in artistic expressions and scientific enquiries, and in any activity through which individuals express their aspirations, pursue their own individual and collective development and exercise their intelligence. This is what lies at the heart of cultural rights in democratic societies. At the opposite end stand societies that make an artificial distinction between those who create, on the one hand, and those who are mere executors or consumers, on the other. 60. In order to implement cultural rights, spaces for creativity related to all human activities must be respected, protected and promoted by States and non -State actors and safeguarded against encroachment by AI. Creativity is not a concept relevant to artistic creation only. Creativity is what gives meaning to all human activities. The safeguarding of it is the necessary response to the sense of a loss of meaning that many people feel in their lives, particularly in their work. Safeguarding space for creativity runs contrary to the imperative to produce more (including art works and scientific works) and faster, which leads to a situation in which people will have to rely on machines in order to write and read an overwhelming amount of works of questionable quality. Creativity requires time, thought and exchange. 61. The cultural rights approach should include the following elements. First, AI tools must not infringe on the spaces needed for human creativity, and they must be developed with the aim of serving human creativity, not replacing it. 62. Second, AI tools must never be developed without due consideration of the importance of cultural diversity, and penalties should be imposed for the lack thereof. The elaboration of AI tools and processes should be accompanied by multidisciplinary 18/21 25-12403