On 3rd December 2025, the UNESCO Chair on Intangible Cultural Heritage in Public and Global Governance was honoured to host Prof. Alexandra Xanthaki, United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw. The visit brought together many students, academics and representatives of cultural institutions to reflect on the role of cultural rights in defending democracy and human dignity amid global insecurity and intensifying social polarisation.
Student workshop on cultural policy
The visit opened with an interactive workshop for students of the programme “Cultural Policy and Cultural Management” at our Faculty, devoted to cultural policy viewed through the lens of cultural rights. The discussion focused on how cultural rights frameworks challenge narrow, top-down, heritage- or high-culture-only approaches to culture and instead require policies that treat culture as a living, evolving, contested, and plural space of practice and meaning.
A central takeaway from the workshop was the importance of distinguishing between:
- “Protecting culture” as a state-led heritage or identity project, and
- Protecting people’s cultural rights, especially the right to participate in shaping cultural life, diverse narratives and different resources.
Students discussed how accessibility, representation and meaningful participation should be assessed not only in relation to major institutions and flagship projects, but also with regard to minority groups, migrants, people with disabilities and other communities whose voices often remain marginal in national cultural strategies. The workshop was based on the analysis of the Report on Poland, and its approach to cultural rights, prepared in 2020 by the former UN Special Rapporteur Karima Bennoune (2020). Prof. Xanthaki discussed with students whether they identified any changes in the government’s approach to the matter of cultural rights between 2020, when the report was prepared, and 2025.
Public lecture: “Has Culture Already Lost to Populism?”
The second part of the programme was a public lecture titled “Has Culture Already Lost to Populism? Defending Cultural Rights in Times of Global Insecurity.”
The meeting in the Prof. Jan Baszkiewicz Auditorium was opened by Prof. Maciej Raś, Vice-Rector for Student Affairs and Quality of Teaching, followed by Prof. Łukasz Zamęcki, Vice-Dean for Research, with welcoming remarks by Prof. Hanna Schreiber, UNESCO Chair Holder, who framed the lecture within the wider context of global democratic challenges and the urgent relevance of cultural rights today.
Key arguments from Prof. Xanthaki
Prof. Xanthaki began by describing the contemporary revival of populist politics, noting how populism often presents “the people” as threatened by political elites while paradoxically promoting nostalgia for a homogeneous nation and legitimising xenophobic and exclusionary agendas.
She strongly emphasised that:
- Human rights are not a question of majority will,
- And states carry a legal obligation, not merely a policy preference, to ensure that populism does not lead to restrictions on human rights. Invocations of “this is what society wants” cannot excuse inaction; a state that consistently fails to protect rights becomes, in her words, a weak or failed rights-protecting actor.
Culture as a tool of exclusion – and why this is not new
Prof. Xanthaki argued that culture has not “lost” to populism because culture has long been used as one of populism’s tools. She illustrated this with examples from different contexts:
- In the United Kingdom, she referred to the cultural symbolism of St George’s flag, which can function as a benign emblem of identity yet is also associated with far-right narratives that pressure immigrants and portray them as threats to the national community;
- In Greece, she discussed legislation requiring that 45% of music played in public spaces be Greek or in Greek. She questioned how such policies define who counts as “Greek” and whether they risk protecting a narrow, state-approved cultural model under the banner of cultural protection;
- In Serbia, she referenced state decisions to remove monuments tied to difficult historical memory, arguing that engineering public remembrance is a political act that narrows the cultural space needed for plural societies.
Across these examples, her broader point was that states have historically advanced static and suffocating understandings of culture, including those that marginalise women, LGBTQ+ persons, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and other groups – often framing discrimination as tradition or national specificity.
A self-critical moment for human rights communities
Prof. Xanthaki also offered an important self-reflective critique of human rights advocacy. She argued that elitism among human rights defenders can inadvertently fuel populist backlash when experts present themselves as moral saviours who “know best,” while treating the public as culturally inferior or in need of enlightenment.
This was linked to her call for cultural democracy – a model that takes the knowledge, experiences and contributions of diverse communitie seriously, and builds policy through participation rather than paternalism.
What cultural rights actually protect
Grounding her argument in international law, Prof. Xanthaki highlighted the expansive concept of culture reflected in the interpretation of Article 15 of the ICESCR, which treats culture as a living process rather than a set of isolated artefacts or elite practices.
She underscored that cultural rights protect not only:
- heritage and monuments,
- artistic freedom, and
- languages,
but also:
- science and knowledge,
- religion and beliefs,
- sports and games,
- technology and livelihoods,
- and everyday cultural practices related to food, dress and the environment.
This breadth reflects a core principle of the mandate: cultural rights empower individuals and groups to express their humanity and shape their identities through diverse forms of cultural life.
Her mandate in practice: participation over access
A key theme, reiterated throughout the talk, was that states are often comfortable discussing access, but avoid the harder commitment to participation.
Prof. Xanthaki referred to her thematic work on:
- the right to participate in sport, shifting attention from elite athletes toward inclusive, everyday participation and addressing discrimination affecting women and trans persons;
- the right to participate in science, recognising that knowledge production is not limited to institutional elites and must include Indigenous and local expertise;
- digitalisation and AI, stressing that these technologies are not neutral and must be regulated so they function in the service of human rights.
A Poland-focused reflection and follow-up logic
In the Polish context, Prof. Xanthaki connected her visit to the earlier country visit by former Special Rapporteur Karima Bennoune (2020), emphasising that such reports should not remain symbolic documents but should serve as tools for implementation.
She outlined key areas for sustained reflection and action, including:
- how broadly culture is defined in state policy,
- whether protection reaches minority cultures during periods of heightened geopolitical tension,
- how the state addresses intersectional discrimination,
- the extent and impact of censorship and self-censorship in cultural sectors,
- who sits on cultural decision-making bodies and who shapes national narratives in museums and galleries,
- and how anti-discrimination education and public campaigns are pursued inside and beyond schools.
Discussion and closing
The Q&A session expanded the debate to issues of:
- the contested public perception of multiculturalism,
- the role of diverse public institutions, not only cultural institutions in safeguarding cultural rights,
- the growing power of private tech companies in shaping cultural and political discourse,
- and the need for clear, emotionally intelligible communication of cultural rights that can compete with simplified populist rhetoric without reproducing elitism.
Prof. Xanthaki concluded by encouraging steady, principled engagement and emphasised the importance of caring for and sustaining rights-based communities, especially in exhausting political climates.
