Alfons Martinell, co-director of the Pablo Casals Chair, participated on November 18 in the 4th edition of the School of Defenders with an expository session on cultural rights.

The School of Defenders is a space for exchange and learning organized by International Action for Peace and the Associació Catalana per la Pau which, from November 17 to 23, brings together in Catalonia human rights defenders —and, more specifically, defenders of cultural rights— and generates spaces for meeting and learning with participants from Colombia, Palestine, Kurdistan and the Philippines.

In the current context, marked by wars, the rise of authoritarianism, the climate crisis and hate speech, defending life, territory or expression can cost one’s freedom or even one’s life. Cultural rights are the least explored within the family of human rights proclaimed in 1948 and defined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), adopted in 1966.

Throughout his life, Pablo Casals promoted dialogue and the commitment of all nations toward coexistence and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. The Pablo Casals Chair has long been organizing different projects to defend this vision, such as “Educating for Peace through Cultural Rights,” with the aim of reflecting on how the values and principles of cultural rights can be incorporated into approaches to peace education.