Thematic issues

Since the creation of the mandate in 2009, the Special Rapporteur has focused on a variety of issues relating to cultural rights, from cultural heritage to access for all to the benefits of scientific knowledge, from the importance of public spaces and artistic expression to everyone's participation in public policies that impact the exercise of cultural rights.

You can find a short description of each of the thematic reports in the summary of thematic issues. The reports are presented in the chronological order of their drafting.

You can access all reports mentioned in the summary through the Annual reports page. This page also contains all country visit reports.

Multiple factors go into choosing a report theme

The decision to dedicate a thematic report to one theme or another is influenced by a number of variables: observations from the Rapporteur of rising trends, current events, experiences encountered during country visits, meeting and exchanges with constituencies who express their need for more human rights guidance to address an issue that falls within the mandate, etc. Most of the time, the choice of a specific theme has been the result of a combination of these.

Most themes have been explored through various angles, providing material either for more than one thematic report, or for opportunities to collaborate with different networks and take part in public events.

Issues in focus: regrouping reports, related events and developments 

Therefore, in addition to the list of "annual reports" displaying the chronology of the work, we have created the "issues in focus" pages. These pages introduce the theme or area of focus, and provide summaries and links to relevant reports from the mandate. They also include a list of related events, materials, important links and further developments that should allow the work in this area to continue.

The issues in focus pages are accessible through the right hand menu.