3 March 2021
Special Rapporteur on the Environment Draws Attention to the Worsening Water Crisis
The Human Rights Council this afternoon held an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, and started an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment. It also concluded its interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the enjoyment of human rights of persons with albinism.
Karima Bennoune, Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, warned that the COVID-19 pandemic may lead to a global “cultural catastrophe” with severe, long-lasting consequences for human rights if effective action was not taken immediately to guarantee cultural rights. Culture sectors had been among those hardest hit. The economic crisis accompanying the pandemic had had disproportionate effects on cultural sectors and those who worked in them. There had been gendered repercussions of the pandemic which had had a grave impact on women’s ability to take part in cultural life without discrimination. Recalling that the right to science was to be enjoyed by everyone, without discrimination, she emphasised that actions such as the hoarding of vaccines by some wealthy nations were entirely unacceptable.