General Comment
In 2003, Professor Virginia Dandan, chair of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, invited Rights and Humanity to prepare a briefing for the Committee in preparation of a General Comment on the right to take part in cultural life, protected by Article 15 (1)(a) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.General Comments clarify the content of specific human rights in more detail. They may outline potential violations of those rights and offer advice to states parties on how best to comply with their obligations under the treaties.
Expert Meeting on Cultural Rights in Amman
Rights and Humanity convened a small group of the leading global experts in human rights and culture to help draft this briefing. In order to ensure that our conclusions reflected a global multi-cultural understanding of this right we organised a series of regional consultations together with our partner, Interarts.
Rights and Humanity convened the meeting for the Arab region in Jordan. We held this meeting under the Patronage of His Royal Highness Prince el Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, in April 2004, at the Al Hussein Cultural Centre in Amman. On the opening day, the drafting group of international experts was joined by a number of distinguished guests, including representatives of several UN agencies and the Arab Thought Forum in order to ensure that the views of representatives of the Arab Region could be taken into account by the drafting group.
HRH Prince Hassan provided the keynote address at the meeting and Her Excellency Sheikha Hessa bint Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani of Qatar, the Special Rapporteur on Disability of the United Nations Commission for Social Development also gave an address. This was followed by presentations from two members of the Arab Thought Forum, Her Excellency Laurice Hlass and His Excellency Sharif Fawwaz Sharaf, who both explored Arab understanding of the right to take part in cultural life.
Drafting the Briefing
The drafting group produced a document entitled 'Elements towards the draft General Comment on the Right to Take Part in Cultural Life (Article 15 (1) (a) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) for the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The results of our discussions were also presented to the International Congress on Cultural Rights and Human Development, organised within the auspices of the Universal Forum of Cultures, Barcelona 2004, where HRH Prince Hassan, our Patron, made a keynote presentation.