Culture, diversity and universality of human rights

[0:05]When cultural rights are threatened, the Universal Human Rights of human beings around the world are threatened. And also cultural rights can be a critical tool for advancing to meet human rights goals. I am very worried about the discourses of exclusion that we are hearing increasingly normalized. Discourses from some political leaders, from candidates that certain groups, minorities are somehow other. That it is now acceptable to express hate speech, to express discriminatory views in a way that perhaps a few years back, people would have known not to do. I am deeply alarmed by this. Cultural diversity in accordance with international standards is a critical part of cultural rights. And we need to understand that universality and cultural diversity go together. Universality is not a weapon against cultural diversity, nor is cultural diversity a justification of human rights violations. We have to enjoy these aspects of human existence in an integrated way. Every actor in society, the Universal Declaration speaks to all of us. We all have an obligation to speak up for universal human rights, to proclaim openly that we are universalists, that we believe in the universality of human rights. If you look at what is happening in the world with the discourses of hatred coming from the highest levels, we can't take these rights for granted. If we don't stand up for human rights, who will? States have the primary obligation to implement international human rights obligations. States have reaffirmed universality again and again. Universality is an international legal obligation, but it is up to all of us to demand that States do that.