News
Eastern Europe States hold a MONDIACULT 2025 regional consultation
The online consultation brought together representatives from 22 Member States, 3 intergovernmental organizations, 19 regional non-governmental organizations, 2 Category II Centres, 9 UNESCO Chairs, and 3 Creative Cities. Chaired by H.E. Ms Agnese Lāce, Minister for Culture of Latvia, the meeting was the second in a series of six regional consultations leading up to the MONDIACULT 2025 Conference. It revolved around mapping national and regional trends in cultural policies and identifying gaps, challenges, and priorities across the Eastern Europe region. The Government of Latvia hosted the consultation, while Croatia and Polan served as the Vice Chair and rapporteur, respectively.
The MONDIACULT regional consultations help uncover opportunities and challenges encountered by cultural actors. We saw a strong call to embrace and promote cultural diversity during the meeting for Eastern Europe. The region also joins the emerging global movement to push culture up the policy agenda and ensure its recognition as a cornerstone of lasting peace.
Member States reaffirmed their commitment to upholding cultural rights, and in particular recognized linguistic diversity as an essential pillar of human dignity and a catalyst for inclusion, participation and social transformation. Countries highlighted the role of cultural rights in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as commended the recent adoption of the 2024 UNESCO Framework for Culture and Arts Education as a milestone in enhancing inclusivity and empowering communities to shape the design of such educational programmes and strategies.
Culture speaks to people in ways no other sector can. This unique power comes along with the responsibility to provide that culture always serves the greater good for the society.
Participants also underscored the need for indicators and robust data collection so the contribution of culture to economic growth can be assessed and monitored at all levels; they agreed that such mechanisms must account for differences in statistical systems and national legislation. Many raised concerns over the growing impact of conflicts and crises on the protection of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. The disruptive effects of such crises led to a strong call to enhance international cooperation in combating the illicit trafficking of cultural property, particularly through strengthening judicial and law enforcement capacities.
The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) was discussed at length, with Member States acknowledging the as an effective means to protect creators' rights. Countries also encouraged multi-stakeholder dialogues to better identify needs and practical solutions for in the protection of culture sector in the digital environment.
The meeting concluded with participants reaffirming their support for culture as a stand-alone goal in the post-2030 Agenda.
We want the MONDIACULT Conference to be the platform for advancing global advocacy for culture as stand-alone goal in the post-2030 Agenda.
