Side Events on Cultural Rights – MONDIACULT 2025
Centre for Cultural Studies and Resources (CERC), Barcelona Provincial Council
MONDIACULT LibraryPAU CASALS UNESCO CHAIR
Protection of artists at risk and Cultural Rights
The Pau Casals UNESCO Chair is participating in MONDIACULT 2025 with the side event “Protection of Artists at risk and Cultural Rights”. Throughout his career as a musician, Pau Casals advocated for peace, international understanding, and the role of the United Nations. His legacy is grounded in a commitment to the struggle for peace through music and culture.
Despite the existence of an international legal framework for protection, society continues to witness violations and vulnerabilities manifested in cultural destruction. These acts have mobilized global awareness of the need for effective protection of artists, creators, performers, and other cultural agents who are forced to leave their countries due to the impossibility of exercising their rights. Various international and local organizations, as well as some cities, have supported this protection through civil society initiatives in different forms of hosting and solidarity.
The aim of this conference is to raise awareness of the effects of war and conflict on the cultural life of populations, and to reflect on United Nations guidelines regarding the intentional destruction of heritage and the impacts of armed conflict. This meeting, bringing together cultural and social actors, seeks to promote solidarity with artists, performers, creators, and others who are forced to leave their countries or cities due to war or conflict, and to present experiences of reception, refuge, and support.
The conference will include presentations on initiatives currently being developed in Barcelona, as well as research on the legacy of Pau Casals in this field. All of this is framed within the implementation and practical application of cultural rights.
With the collaboration of:
GABEIRAS FOUNDATION
Culture as a Global Public Good as a Guarantee of Cultural Rights
The Gabeiras Foundation is an organization established in 2016 dedicated to research, dissemination, and advocacy in the field of cultural rights. Within its lines of work, at the beginning of 2023 the Foundation launched a multidisciplinary working group to address the current debate on “culture as a basic good”.
In recent years, several concepts have emerged in public discourse that define culture in different ways, such as “a basic and essential good” (Law 14/2021 of 11 October), “a global public good” (MONDIACULT, Mexico 2022), and “an essential public good and global public good” (Spanish EU Presidency, Cáceres 2023). The aim of the working group is to provide a solid conceptual framework for this debate, enabling its proper development and implementation. The work seeks to support legislative and regulatory transformation so that culture is understood as an essential good to be protected, and cultural participation as a right to be fully guaranteed.
The conference will present the work carried out by the group to date, as well as contributions from key cultural actors from Latin America. The aim is to contrast different approaches addressing key questions such as what we mean when we refer to culture as a basic good, what distinguishes the various concepts, and what future this new theoretical framework outlines.
Conference held in Catalan and Spanish.
Protection of artists at risk and Cultural Rights
16.45-17.00 h Accreditation
17-17.10 h Opening and introduction
With contributions from:
– Manel Jiménez, Vice-Rector for Alliances, Community and Culture at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC).
– Jordi Pardo, Director General of the Pau Casals Foundation.
– Roger Dedeu, President of the Gabeiras Foundation.
17.10-17.30 h “The evolution of international mechanisms for the protection of musicians at risk. A historical perspective exploring the legacy of Pau Casals”
– Laurence Cuny, lawyer and human rights expert, specialized in cultural rights and artistic freedom.
17.30-17.50 h Round table: “Actions to protect artist at risk”
With contributions from:
– Xavier Cutillas, Director of the Associació Catalana per la Pau.
– Gemma Rodríguez, Director of PEN Català.
17.50-18 h Conclusions and closing
– Alfons Martinell, Co-Director of the Pau Casals UNESCO Chair.
Culture as a Global Public Good as a Guarantee of Cultural Rights
18.15-18.55 h
With contributions from:
– Lucina Jiménez, Director General of Training and Cultural Management within the Secretariat of Culture of the Government of Mexico.
– Humberto Cunha, Professor of Cultural Law in the Doctoral Programme in Constitutional Law, University of Fortaleza (Brazil).
– Patricia Gabeiras, Director of the Gabeiras Foundation and PhD in Cultural Law.
18.55-19.15 h Conclusions and closing session
– Jesús Prieto de Pedro, Vice-President of the Gabeiras Foundation and Professor of Administrative Law at UNED.
Organized by the Pau Casals UNESCO Chair and the Gabeiras Foundation.
