A/HRC/44/49/Add.2 5. Artistic freedom exists within, and is protected by, a framework of interconnected rights, including privacy, freedom of thought, conscience and religion and belief, association and assembly, and participation in cultural life.4 Artistic forms pervade social, cultural, civic and political life – the posters protesters carry at public assemblies, the calligraphic Arabic verses that beautify mosques and homes, the statues of Buddha in temples, the architectural wonders of cities and villages, the drawing you doodle for a child, the music that accompanies our daily lives, the fictional and nonfictional stories that educate or divert or provoke, the cartoons that clarify political positions, the memes that mock public figures, the comic routines that help us laugh at ourselves, and on and on. Artistic creation can function like the “forum internum – a person’s inner realm of thinking and believing,” as described by the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief,5 and it can function as the forum externum, or expression. As the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights noted, “All persons enjoy the rights to freedom of expression and creativity, to participate in cultural life and to enjoy the arts.”6 6. The spectrum of artistic expression is wide and dynamic, ever-changing and expanding, and cannot be limited by some kind of transactional definition. Moreover, Article 19 of the ICCPR protects expressive media and, in the context of art, refers to “the form of art”. This language avoids the difficult, often deeply contested and subjective problems of definition (‘what is art?’) by instead focusing on the expression’s form. Put another way, whether one is considering painting, music, sculpture, film, photography, cartooning, performance, drama, comedy, or any other discipline (or non-discipline), digital or otherwise (and forms that cannot be identified or articulated today), the question is not, ‘does this media have artistic merit or qualify as art?’ Neither is it a value judgement (‘is it good?’ or ‘is it of social benefit?’). To the contrary, Article 19(2) must be read to govern expression through any media, including artistic forms, regardless of how art itself is defined or evaluated. One cannot deprive a particular expressive work of protection by calling it, for instance, propaganda. Human rights law neither preferences nor prioritizes certain forms of expression over others; all are to be protected and promoted, with limitations subject to the same legal framework. 7. The human rights legal framework for artistic freedom of opinion and expression requires, first, evaluating the rights at issue; and, second, assessing whether restrictions may lawfully be applied. Individual and social dimensions 8. Article 19(2) of the ICCPR protects the rights of individuals to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds through any media of their choice, including in the form of art. It is a robustly articulated right, facilitating not only the fundamentally human curiosity of learning (seeking and receiving) and sharing (imparting), but also framing the object of such activity as broadly as possible (information and ideas of all kinds). The Human Rights Committee emphasized in General Comment 34 the dual rights of seeking/receiving, on the one hand, and imparting, on the other, in the context of media freedom. 7 Echoing this 4 5 6 7 4 Mariam Hübner, Arts Rights Justice Observatory Study III, Justice. Opportunities and Challenges for Artistic Freedom, 2019, Available at: https://www.uni-hildesheim.de/arts-rights-justice-library/arjstudies/. See Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Prof. Heiner Bielefeldt, Report on the relationship between the right to freedom of religion or belief and the right to freedom of opinion and expression, A/HRC/31/18, 23 December 2015. Report of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed, Report on the right to freedom of artistic expression and creativity, A/HRC/23/34, 14 March 2013, 4. Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 34: Article 19: Freedoms of opinion and expression. 12 September 2011. UN doc. CCPR/C/GC/34, ¶13-14 (hereinafter: General Comment 34); See, e.g., Human Rights Committee, Mavlonov v. Uzbekistan, 29 April 2009, Communication No. 1334/2004, CCPR/C/95/D/1334/2004, ¶ 8.4. (“The Committee therefore finds that the right to freedom of expression under article 19 of the Covenant, respectively, Mr. Mavlonov’s ability to publish ‘Oina’ and to impart information, and Mr. Sa’di’s right to receive information and ideas in print, has been violated.”) See also, Toby Mendel, Restricting Freedom of Expression: Standards and Principles, March 2010 http://www.law-democracy.org/wpcontent/uploads/2010/07/10.03.Paper-onRestrictions-on-FOE.pdf.