By Johanna Kanes, IANGEL Bridge Fellow
Earlier this year, IANGEL submitted a report to the UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights, Ms. Karima Bennoune, in response to a call for submissions for her report on cultural rights and public spaces. IANGEL’s submitted report, Women, Cultural Rights, and Public Spaces: Analysis and Recommendations to Advance Women’s Human Rights, focuses on how women access and enjoy their cultural rights through public spaces.
In particular, the report focuses on the importance of public space, the facilitation of cultural rights through public spaces, and the ways in which women engage with and benefit from public space. It also examines how actors (from States to civil society) address women, cultural rights and public space from a global perspective.
It is a great honor to announce that Ms. Bennoune has cited Women, Cultural Rights, and Public Spaces, in her report to the UN General Assembly. You can read her full report here.
In her report, Ms. Bennoune addresses public spaces in the context of cultural rights, the international legal framework supporting cultural rights through public spaces, and offers a “cultural rights checklist” for policymakers regarding public spaces.
Ms. Bennoune received IANGEL’s Rights and Leadership Award (now the Amel Zenoune-Zouani Rights & Leadership Award) in 2016.
IANGEL hopes that Women, Cultural Rights, and Public Spaces: Analysis and Recommendations to Advance Women’s Human Rights will be used as a tool for policy and change-makers to originate informed decisions in supporting women’s cultural rights through public spaces. As the report lays bare, . . .
” . . . what is clear from the research is that women can enjoy greater access to their cultural rights through public space when women are treated as equals, feel safe in public spaces, are included in the design process and administration of public spaces, and are encouraged to use public space to promote and engage with their cultural rights.”