The ARTS RIGHTS JUSTICE (ARJ) Programme

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31273/LGD.2025.2057

Keywords:

University of Hildesheim, Cultural rights, Artistic freedom, Collaboration, Global-local, Culture and policy

Abstract

This article examines the ARTS RIGHTS JUSTICE (ARJ) Programme, developed at the University of Hildesheim in Germany, to address the growing global suppression of artistic freedom and expression. Launched in 2017, the programme includes summer academies that train experts in supporting artists at risk and includes an online library providing resources on artistic freedom. The author contextualises this initiative within UNESCO's 2005 Convention on Cultural Diversity, along with debates over decolonising international cooperation. The programme identifies critical thematic areas requiring attention: censorship mechanisms, advocacy, networking, monitoring, fair collaboration, mobility justice, and hosting at-risk artists. Collaboration emerges as essential for sector-strengthening, exemplified by partnerships with organisations like ICORN and UNESCO. The article emphasises the need for globally distributed, locally-rooted actors, to ensure that universal human rights principles are integrated within diverse cultural narratives, contexts, organisations and institutions.

Author Biography

  • Daniel Gad

    Daniel Gad is the Managing Director of the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policies for the Arts and Transformation at the Universität Hildesheim, Germany, and Coordinator of the UNITWIN Network on Cultural Policies, Diversity and Transformation

References

This is a photographic image of a man seated atop an unidentified mountain location. He is selling plastic bubble blowing tubes to children. Against the blue of the sky and vast landscape in the distance, the lone figure is symbolic of the contingency of our civic life in the expanse of planetary environment.

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Published

2025-10-14

Issue

No. 28 (2025)

Section

Articles