Educating in Cultural Rights Workshop

Context

Throughout his life, Pau Casals placed music at the service of the ideals of peace, justice, and freedom. His artistic career was linked to a firm social commitment to the issues of his time. His defense of fundamental human rights and peace, from his position as a musician, allows us to situate his legacy in contemporary debates on the social role of culture and the defense of cultural rights.

The Pau Casals Chair aims to promote a space for reflection on the need to develop a deeper understanding of cultural rights, fostering education and their inclusion in the programming of various cultural and educational services, such as museums, libraries, community centers, arts schools, art centers, and others.

Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, key international human rights law instruments have referred to culture. The right of every person to freely participate in cultural life is enshrined both in that declaration and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), among other documents.

In accordance with the principles of indivisibility and interdependence of human rights, the right to participate in cultural life cannot be separated from other human rights. Likewise, the fundamental principles of human rights as a whole—such as universality, equality, and non-discrimination—also apply to cultural rights. This means that every person must be able to exercise their cultural rights, and that measures must be adopted when clear inequalities are identified among people living in a given territory or when obstacles to their effective enjoyment are detected.

In recent years, the United Nations’ approaches to cultural rights, following General Comment No. 21 of 2009 and the establishment of the mandate of the Independent Expert in the field of cultural rights within the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, have broadened and deepened different aspects of the recognition and exercise of these rights within our cultural systems. Areas of study and analysis in various reports highlight the need to further develop the role of cultural services in education and awareness-raising on cultural rights. There is a noted lack of integration of the cultural rights approach in the discourse and narratives of many cultural institutions and services. In this context, there is also a perceived lack of specialized training on this subject among cultural managers, educators, and cultural professionals, to which this activity seeks to contribute.

Activity organized within the framework of International Museum Day.

The workshop

This activity is a training workshop on cultural rights education. Its main objectives are:

• To contribute to the knowledge and awareness of cultural rights in educational and cultural contexts.
• To promote reflection and dialogue on cultural rights, their expressions, and their presence in everyday life.
• To foster a cultural rights-based approach in the programming of cultural institutions and projects.
• To identify cultural rights as one of the key components of transversal civic competences within the educational curriculum and to ensure their presence in the education system.
• To provide tools for working on cultural rights in educational settings within cultural services.

Contents and methodology

• Understanding cultural rights. The theoretical framework and its practical application. The starting point: the realities we face. Experiencing cultural rights.
• The lived experience of cultural rights, from the museum, from the educational centre, and from home. A framework of proposed activities and reflections.
• Exploration of inspiring experiences. The immediate environment of educators and knowledge of the social and cultural context.
• Design of tools and resources for monitoring and applying learning within cultural services.

Please note

Attendance at the workshop is free of charge, but prior registration is required. Registration will be open from 20 April until 19 May at 3:00 p.m. The Chair is organising a standing lunch in the Museum gardens for all speakers and for those participants who wish to attend. If interested, participants must select the lunch option and pay a fee of €18 when registering. Given that only one hour is available for lunch and the limited gastronomic options in the area on Mondays, this option is recommended.