Venezuela Calls on UNESCO to Protect Cultural Rights

On Thursday, Venezuelan Culture Minister Ernesto Villegas called on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to adopt measures to protect the cultural rights of peoples from the harmful impact of sanctions imposed by other countries.

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UNESCO should offer a "mechanism to protect the cultural rights of peoples, their heritage and cultural diversity, from unilateral coercive measures," Villegas said at the 2022 World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development (MONDIACULT).

"Sanctions can severely impact communities, not only in Latin America but worldwide... those who have calculated the numbers say that half of humanity is being subjected to sanctions," he added.

Venezuela supports MONDIACULT's goal to officially recognize culture as a "global public good" in a joint declaration to be issued at the end of the conference, Villegas said.

The Bolivarian government has repeatedly denounced the negative impact that U.S. arbitrary sanctions have had on its people, both socially and economically.

The 2022 MONDIACULT counts on the presence of culture ministers from 117 countries who are meeting in Mexico City to discuss and analyze the paths that policies must take to guarantee the cultural diversity and identity amid a global context in constant change.

Among the contemporary policy challenges are the control of illicit trafficking in cultural goods, the vulnerability of cultural professionals, the transformations prompted by new technologies, and the relationship between climate change and culture.