News by Partners & Governments

Human Rights Museum in Mechelen

A new Holocaust and Human Rights Museum has been opened by Flemish Minister-President Kris Peeters in Mechelen (Belgium) on 1 December 2012. The old Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance was turned into a memorial, a place of reflection for victims and their relatives, while a new building – a white monolith – opposite the old barracks hosts the permanent historical exhibition. With four floors of galleries, a spacious auditorium, cafeteria and two educational areas, the infrastructure is designed to accommodate school and other groups as well as individual visitors. More...


HOT Publication

The Intercultural City - Step by Step (February 2013)
It falls primarily upon cities to design and implement policies that foster community cohesion and turn cultural diversity into a factor of development rather than a threat. This practical guide for applying the urban model of intercultural integration is designed for city leaders and practitioners wishing to learn from the "Intercultural Cities" pilot project run by the Council of Europe and the European Commission in developing an intercultural approach to diversity management. The guide recommends steps and measures to help develop an intercultural strategy and monitor its implementation.

HOT Events

Cultural Participation as a Human Right?
At a press conference held on 15 January 2013, city officials from Wroclaw (Poland) announced their intention to strive, in cooperation with the Polish Government, for an inclusion of the "right to participation in culture" as one of the basic rights in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of the Council of Europe - in 2011, the city of Wroclaw had been selected to become the European Capital of Culture in 2016. A Panel of Experts, co-organized with NCK (National Centre of Culture), met on March 6 in Wroclaw to further clarify this issue. A larger Expert Conference on the right to culture in international legal instruments is to be held November 2013 in Warsaw.  More...

Featured soon:

  • The Culture of a Sustainable Environment
  • (Non-) Participation in Culture: Issues and Remedies
  • Freedom of Religion vs. Freedom of Expression: Two sides of a coin?