Kiri

DATE: 10 October 2025

A/TO: All Permanent Missions and Observer Missions to the United Nations Office

at Geneva

FAX:

TEL:

E-MAIL:

DE/FROM: Federica Donati

Officer-in-Charge

Special Procedures Branch

FAX: +41 22 917 90 08

TEL: +41 22 917 96 30

E-MAIL: [email protected]

REF:

PAGES: 4 (Y COMPRIS CETTE PAGE/INCLUDING THIS PAGE)

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OBJET/SUBJECT: Call for submissions from the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights

Please find attached a call for submissions from the Special Rapporteur

in the field of cultural rights, available in English (original language), French

and Spanish (unofficial translations).

PALAIS DES NATIONS • 1211 GENEVA 10, SWITZERLAND

www.ohchr.org • Tel: +41 22 917 9000 • Fax: +41 22 917 9008 • E-mail: [email protected]

All Permanent Missions to the United Nations Office and Observers Missions at

Geneva

Mandate of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights

10 October 2025

Excellency,

I have the honour to address you in my capacity as the United Nations Special

Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution

55/5.

In my forthcoming report to the Human Rights Council, I intend to address the

issue of nature conversation and cultural rights. In order to identify relevant experiences

and challenges, I have prepared a questionnaire (attached), which I am hereby sending

to States, United Nations agencies, national human rights institutions, academics,

scientists, cultural workers and practitioners, as well as civil society organizations for

their consideration. I look forward to benefiting from their diverse views and

experiences.

Submissions should be sent electronically no later than 15 November 2025 to

[email protected], using the email title: “Nature conservation and cultural

rights”.

Please select and answer the questions most relevant for your country or

organization / entity. Kindly limit your responses to 2,000 words and attach annexes

where necessary. To facilitate their consideration, please send responses in a Word

document, and in English, French or Spanish. Please clearly specify the entity making

the contribution on the document itself and add paragraph numbers.

Kindly note that all submissions will be posted on the OHCHR website.

I wish to thank you in advance for your cooperation and I hope to continue a

constructive dialogue on issues related to my mandate.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration

Alexandra Xanthaki

Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS ON

NATURE CONSERVATION AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

In her upcoming report to the Human Rights Council, to be presented in March

2026, the United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Ms. Alexandra

Xanthaki, will consider the intersections between nature conservation and cultural

rights.

The Special Rapporteur intends to explore synergies and challenges in ensuring

both cultural rights and the conservation of nature at the same time. She intends to clarify

how cultural rights – protecting identities, values and ways of life – are important to the

field of nature conservation and vice versa. She will demonstrate that cultural rights are

essential for a comprehensive understanding and plan of nature conservation, and vice

versa. She will discuss how cultural rights amplify the implementation of the existing

frameworks regarding nature conservation, and which types of situations and challenges

demand particular attention to avoid infringing on cultural rights, which are universal

human rights. She will also explore the issue of possible limitations to cultural rights in

the name of nature conservation, and vice versa, under the conditions posed by

international human rights law. The study will zoom in the sections of the population

whose cultural rights are particularly affected by conservation practices; and will assess

the work of the main stakeholders in this field.

In conducting this work, the Special Rapporteur will use the definition of cultural

rights used by her mandate and other human rights mechanisms. Cultural rights protect

the development and expression of cultural identities. At their core, they empower

individuals and groups to express their humanity, worldviews and the meanings they

attribute to their existence and development through various forms of human expressions.

This can include the arts, cultural heritage or languages, as well as sciences, knowledge,

convictions, religions and beliefs, sports and games, rites and ceremonies, production

methods, technology, institutions and livelihoods, connections with nature and the

environment, food and dress. They also encompass the rights to access and participate in

heritage and resources that facilitate these processes of identification and development.

In order to identify relevant experiences and challenges, the Special Rapporteur

has prepared a questionnaire, which is being sent out to States, United Nations agencies,

national human rights institutions, academics, cultural workers and practitioners, as well

as civil society organizations for their consideration. She looks forward to benefiting from

the diverse views and experiences.

The call for contributions will be open from 10 October to 15 November 2025.

Kindly limit your responses to 2,000 words and attach annexes where necessary.

To facilitate their consideration, please send responses in a Word document, clearly

specify the entity making the contribution on the document itself and add paragraph

numbers. Responses can be sent in English, French or Spanish, to hrc-sr-

[email protected] (email title: “Nature conservation and cultural rights”)

The contributions received will inform the report of the Special Rapporteur.

Kindly note that all contributions received will be posted on the OHCHR website.

Questions

You may answer all questions or only those that are closer to your work and/or

experience.

General

1. What are the main beliefs, practices, myths, stories, sports and ways of life in

your country or territory, that foster the conservation of nature and the peaceful

interaction between humans and nature?

2. In your country or territory, are there natural elements, resources or spaces that

people are strongly tied to and wish to preserve as part of their heritage and are

meaningful to their identities and ways of life? Please provide examples.

3. In your experience, what are the main beliefs and practices that impede nature

conservation? What would be the most important cultural shifts needed to better

protect natural resources and biodiversity?

Conservation projects, measures and policies

4. Please identify and share examples of conservation projects and measures that

have involved traditional and/or local knowledges, languages, ways of life and

practices in their elaboration and implementation. Provide information on how

the use of these resources positively or negatively influenced outcomes of the

project.

5. Please identify and share examples of conservation projects and measures that

have failed, or that have met challenges because they did not respect the values

and priorities of the people affected by them or did not align with their

aspirations for development.

6. Please identify and share examples of measures taken to ensure respect,

protection, promotion, and fulfilment of human rights in the context of the

implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s

goals and targets, as well as Section C. These could be the implementation of

human rights impact assessments or the establishment of participation and

consultation mechanisms with local and concerned populations. Please specify

what impacts these measures have had on the implementation of the GBF.

7. Have you identified any human rights challenges related to biodiversity loss

and/or measures adopted in the context of the implementation of the Kunming-

Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework? Please identify and share examples

of conservation projects and measures that have implied restrictions to cultural

rights, and explain the legitimacy such restrictions and under which provisions

of international law?

8. What measures have been taken for the documentation and preservation of

traditional knowledge associated with biodiversity, and for the recording and

evaluation of the innovations, values and practices of Indigenous Peoples and

local communities concerned by conservation efforts?

9. Please share information about any participatory approach that have been

implemented in conservation projects, including measures to obtain free, prior

and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and to

involve people in awareness raising, at the local and national levels. Please

explain the impact of promoting the contributions of Indigenous Peoples, local

communities, people of African descent and local minorities, women and girls,

children and youth, and persons with disabilities, as active participants and

partners in preserving biodiversity and enhancing nature conservation,

restoration and sustainable use.

10. Please identify and share examples of how intergovernmental organizations,

non-governmental organizations and donors have either advanced or impeded

cultural rights in the context of conservation projects.

11. Please identify and share examples of how cultural rights are accounted for and

protected in the scope of carbon markets and carbon offsetting schemes

designed to protect biodiversity.

12. Please provide any additional information, examples and recommendations you

believe would be useful to support the conservation of nature and biodiversity

while promoting the full and effective enjoyment of cultural rights