Cultural Rights and the Protection of Cultural Heritage

A/HRC/RES/58/4View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A document of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2025.

What other versions does this mandate have?

4 versions · 2016–2025

2025A/HRC/RES/58/4Cultural rights and the protection of cultural heritageLatestCompare with previous version
2022A/HRC/RES/49/7Cultural rights and the protection of cultural heritageCompare with previous version
2018A/HRC/RES/37/17Cultural rights and the protection of cultural heritageCompare with previous version
2016A/HRC/RES/33/20Cultural rights and the protection of cultural heritage

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 topics

Crime Prevention Cultural Heritage Cultural Pluralism Cultural Property Protection Cultural Property Restitution Destruction of Property Digital Technology Right to Culture

What does this mandate say?

24 operative paragraphs

Calls upon all States to respect, promote and protect the right of everyone to take part in cultural life, including the ability to access and enjoy cultural heritage in all its forms, including digital heritage;

Deplores damage to the cultural heritage of countries in situations of crisis, conflict and post-conflict, in particular recent attacks on world cultural heritage sites, calls for an immediate end to such acts, encourages the use of digital tools, including satellite imagery, to monitor, safeguard, promote and reconstruct cultural heritage, and reminds States Parties to the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and to the two Protocols thereto of the provisions contained therein to safeguard and respect cultural property and to prohibit, prevent and, if necessary, put a stop to any form of theft, pillage or misappropriation of, and any acts of vandalism directed against, cultural property;

Urges all parties to armed conflicts, whether international or non-international, to refrain from any unlawful military use or targeting of cultural property, in full conformity with their obligations under international humanitarian law;

Encourages States that have not yet become a party to relevant treaties that provide for the protection of tangible and intangible cultural heritage to consider doing so;

Calls for enhanced international cooperation in preventing and combating the organized looting, smuggling and theft of and illicit trafficking in cultural objects and in restoring stolen, looted or trafficked cultural property to its country of origin, and invites States to take measures in this regard at the national level to make effective use to this end of relevant tools and databases developed under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the International Criminal Police Organization and the World Customs Organization, within the scope of their respective mandates;

Encourages strengthened international cooperation on the return or restitution of cultural properties of spiritual, ancestral, historical and cultural value to countries of origin, including but not limited to objets d’art, monuments, museum pieces, manuscripts and documents, and strongly encourages relevant private entities to similarly engage, including through bilateral dialogue and with the assistance of multilateral mechanisms, as appropriate;

Also encourages the strengthening of dialogue and cooperation between relevant international organizations and States affected by the organized looting, theft and smuggling of and illicit trafficking in cultural property, including through the provision of support and technical assistance aimed at enhancing their national capacities to restore, protect and preserve cultural heritage and property;

Calls for the development of partnerships between competent national authorities and civil society, in particular grass-roots institutions, with the aim of creating a safe and enabling environment to enhance the protection of cultural rights and to promote the right of everyone to take part in cultural life, including the ability to access and enjoy cultural heritage in all its aspects;

Recalls that, in General Assembly resolution 79/1, culture was recognized as an enabler of sustainable development, and encourages States to work on strengthening the incorporation of cultural diversity and aspects related to cultural rights in the implementation of their strategies for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly the Sustainable Development Goal targets that explicitly relate to cultural rights that already exist;

Calls for the identification of innovative ways and best practices, at the national, regional and international levels, for the prevention of violations and abuses of cultural rights, and for participatory and inclusive approaches to the prevention and mitigation of damage caused to cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible;

Also calls for the recognition of the protection of cultural heritage as an important component of humanitarian assistance, including in armed conflict and with regard also to displaced populations, and for enhanced cooperation between the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the mandate of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and other relevant agencies and stakeholders, with a view to mainstreaming the protection of cultural heritage into humanitarian actions, security strategies and peacebuilding processes and in post-conflict reconciliation initiatives;

Encourages States to adopt a gender-sensitive and inclusive approach to the protection of cultural heritage and the safeguarding of cultural rights that is respectful of cultural diversity and includes consideration of the human rights issues of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, as set out in the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, and of Indigenous Peoples, as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;

Also encourages States to promote and safeguard the diversity of cultural expressions, to foster intercultural and intracultural dialogue and to support traditional practices and creative productions of Indigenous Peoples, people of African descent and persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities;

Calls upon States to seek to enable the access and/or repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains in their possession through fair, transparent and effective mechanisms developed in conjunction with the Indigenous Peoples concerned;

Calls for the safety and security of cultural rights defenders involved in the protection of cultural heritage to be protected, including by investigating and, where appropriate, bringing to justice anyone alleged to have harmed them;

Invites States to adopt effective strategies to prevent the destruction of cultural heritage by, inter alia, ensuring accountability, establishing and/or maintaining inventories documenting the cultural heritage within their jurisdiction, including through digital means, addressing specific challenges affecting documentary heritage, implementing educational programmes on the importance of cultural heritage and cultural rights, training military forces and humanitarian actors and other relevant stakeholders in all applicable rules concerning the protection of cultural heritage, both during and in the aftermath of armed conflict, and developing preparatory measures and risk preparedness plans during peacetime in order to ensure that there are procedures and processes in place to mitigate the destruction of cultural heritage;

Also invites States to address all digital divides in addressing digital heritage, including both digitized and born-digital materials, with a view to enabling full and meaningful access to and participation in cultural life and promoting meaningful consultation with heritage communities regarding the meaning they convey to their heritage;

Encourages States to address limitations of cultural rights, to take the measures necessary to prevent the destruction of historic monuments, works of art or places of worship that constitute the cultural or spiritual heritage of peoples, both in conflict and non-conflict situations, and to promote respect for cultural diversity;

Encourages States, the international community, the United Nations and civil society to consider implementing the relevant recommendations contained in the reports of the High Commissioner on the intersessional workshop on cultural rights and the protection of cultural heritage, as well as those made by the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights in her relevant reports presented to the Human Rights Council and to the General Assembly;

Requests the High Commissioner, in consultation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights:

To develop appropriate tools for the dissemination of an approach to digital heritage, including digitalization of cultural heritage, that promotes universal respect for cultural rights by all;

To convene, before the sixty-fourth session of the Human Rights Council, a one-day workshop to review and promote the tools for the dissemination of good practices and possible methods of, as well as challenges encountered in, implementing an approach to digital heritage, including digitalization of cultural heritage, that promotes universal respect for cultural rights by all, and to make the workshop accessible to persons with disabilities;

Also requests the High Commissioner to submit a report thereon to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-sixth session;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

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