WUNRN
Press
Release
13
November 2009
Cultural
Rights: New UN Independent Expert Takes Charge
GENEVA -- Pakistani sociologist Ms. Farida Shaheed has taken office as newly
appointed Independent Expert in the field of cultural rights, one of the latest
areas earmarked for special monitoring by the UN Human Rights Council.
“My decades of work at the grassroots in promoting human rights leaves me in no
doubt that the right to cultural life and cultural development is an essential
and inherent right of all individuals and peoples,” said Ms. Shaheed, who was
appointed by the Human Rights Council in October 2009.
After a first series of consultations to shape her new mandate, held at the
Geneva headquarters of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Ms. Shaheed stressed that “cultural rights must celebrate the diversities that
define our collective humanity.”
“The challenge is to ensure that the right to pursue, develop and preserve
culture in all its manifestations is in consonance with and serves to uphold
the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights,” said
the new Independent Expert. “This includes the right not to be forced into
participation.”
Farida Shaheed, recipient of several national and international human rights
awards, has worked for more than 25 years promoting and protecting cultural
rights by fostering policies and projects designed in culturally sensitive ways
to support the rights of marginalized sectors, including women, peasants, and
religious and ethnic minorities.
An experienced participant in negotiations at international, regional and
national levels, Ms. Shaheed has brought her distinctive perspective on the
integration of culture and rights to her work as an independent
expert/consultant to numerous UN and development agencies as well as to the
government of Pakistan since 1980.
Ms. Shaheed is the Deputy Director of a research project on Women’s
Empowerment in Muslim Contexts: gender, poverty and democratization from the
inside out, and is a visiting fellow at the City University of Hong Kong.
She is also the Director of research in Shirkat Gah – Women’s Resource Centre
in Pakistan.
ENDS
The
Human Rights Council established the new mandate of independent expert in the
field of cultural rights on 26 March 2009. The independent expert’s work
focuses on identifying best practices and obstacles to the implementation of
cultural rights, and fostering the adoption of measures aimed at their
promotion and protection. The first report of the independent expert will be
considered by the Human Rights Council in June 2010.
For
more information and media queries, please contact Mylène Bidault - Tel: +
41 22 917 92 54 / e-mail: mbidault@ohchr.org
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