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The debate about the meaning of cultural rights and how to safeguard them (p10) has been brought into sharp focus recently by the Jerry Springer and Behzti furor. In light of this, Globe Education?s tour of faith-based schools (p3) is timely because it illustrates the role that culture can play in drawing people into society and engaging audiences in a debate about social mores and values. Where those audiences are children, this interaction is all the more important.
These are well rehearsed arguments for the value of cultural engagement, with which most arts practitioners will be only too familiar. Less familiar, perhaps, are the arguments about the impact of the arts on the communal British wallet. However, even the most casual perusal of this issue of ArtsProfessional supports the case for the arts as an economic driver. From Edinburgh (p1) to London (p3), the creative industries are lauded for the financial contribution they make to the economy, and in particular to the revenues generated from tourism. It is official: the arts are the new industrial heartlands of Britain.

Perhaps, then, it?s no surprise that the UK Government, as well as the Scottish and Welsh Assemblies, are moving the issue of cultural rights up their respective agendas. Current policy statements clearly state the UK Government?s commitment to preserving and protecting cultural rights, both in Britain and internationally. ?The UK Government takes the view that? all categories of human rights are of equal importance and interdependent? [cultural rights] are human rights just as important as any other human right.? Fine words indeed: though set in the context of the contribution the arts make to the UK economy, maybe the enthusiasm of politicians for establishing and supporting cultural rights becomes a little easier to understand.