29 and 30 September 2025 - Minister of Culture and Media dr. sc. Nina Obuljen Koržinek and her associates are in Barcelona on the occasion of the world's largest conference on cultural policies and sustainable development MONDIACULT organized by UNESCO. It is a key international platform for cultural policies and international development, bringing together ministers of culture and numerous experts, civil society and artists to jointly discuss the role of culture in building fairer, more peaceful and sustainable societies.
At the panel "Culture, Heritage and Crises", Minister Obuljen Koržinek reminded that climate change, earthquakes and pandemics threaten cultural heritage and emphasized the importance of continuous investment in preparedness in order to reduce risk and ensure quality reconstruction. She emphasized the importance of international cooperation and solidarity in crisis situations, recalling the Croatian experience during and after the Homeland War, as well as after the recent earthquakes.
She also reminded that Croatian experts have generously offered their valuable experience and knowledge in the restoration of destroyed cultural heritage, i.e. the system developed during the Homeland War, to their colleagues in Ukraine from the very beginning of the aggression, especially related to the alienation of cultural property, given that the aggressor stole more than 30 thousand items from Croatia, of which about a thousand remain to be returned. "It is crucial to develop a system of inventory and documentation of works of art and other movable cultural goods so that experts can work on the return," said the Minister, emphasizing that we have excellent cooperation with, for example, the Italian Carabinieri who manage to find items on the black market almost every year, as well as with INTERPOL and other international organizations. In this context, the Minister recalled that the attack on her hometown of Dubrovnik, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979, was the first example in history that a person - a Serbian general was convicted of a war crime, among other things, for the intentional destruction of cultural heritage, in accordance with international law, citing a violation of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Also, the Minister emphasized that Croatia has always known how to recognize the importance of preserving international cultural heritage, recalling the financial assistance in the restoration of the destroyed heritage in Mali as well as the restoration of the Church of the Miraculous Lady in the center of Mosul.
"The protection of cultural heritage must not remain only declarative, but must become an integral part of development policies and practices", said the Minister, concluding that it is crucial to review national policies and implement decision-making mechanisms at institutional, legal, financial, operational and other levels. Minister Obuljen Koržinek emphasized that only together, through the exchange of experiences and an international network, can we build a safer and more sustainable future.
At the panel related to cultural policies and gender equality, Minister Obuljen Koržinek pointed out that women in the cultural and creative industries are still underrepresented in leading positions and stressed that it is necessary to ensure their full visibility, participation and recognition in cultural life.
The Minister recalled Croatian experiences, including the "Women in the Media" project, launched by the Agency for Electronic Media with the aim of raising awareness of the position of women in Croatian society, achieving better sensitization of the media and the general public about the representation of women in the media, as well as ensuring better visibility of women in the media while contributing to the reduction of stereotypes. She also pointed out that the Ministry of Culture and Media continuously cooperates with the Office for Gender Equality of the Government, and the Action Plan for the Promotion and Implementation of Gender Equality 2024-2027 was jointly drafted, thanks to which 68% of women are in managerial positions within the Ministry, and a high percentage of women are representedcan be seen in the entire field of culture and media.
At the MONDIACULT 2025 world conference, ministers and representatives of culture of UNESCO member states will adopt a joint declaration highlighting culture as a central pillar of sustainable development, a foundation of human rights and a global public good. Furthermore, the declaration defines key elements for the position of culture within the framework of the post-2030 development agenda, emphasizing the transformative power of culture for social cohesion, economic development, environmental protection and peace. Special emphasis was placed on the need to protect cultural diversity, the integration of art and heritage into education and lifelong learning, the protection of cultural heritage and artists in crisis situations, a more responsible approach and use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence, as well as the promotion of culture as a means of dialogue, reconciliation and peacebuilding.
In the side programme of the MONDIACULT 2025 conference, the European Commissioner for Intergenerational Justice, Youth, Culture and Sport, Glenn Micallef, presented the report of the Open Methods of Coordination (OMC) group on the topic of "Culture and Health", which highlights three Croatian projects: the pan-European initiative "Film in the Hospital", which connects film culture with paediatric care, and brings carefully selected films to children and young people in hospitals in eight EU countries. contents, then the art project "Healing Nature" by Melinda Šefčić and Lea Vidaković, which demonstrates the power of depicting nature through various media in hospital spaces, in order to support the mental, physical and spiritual health of the individual and the hospital community, and the national program to encourage reading to children from an early age "Born to Read", implemented at the national level by the Ministry of Culture and Media in cooperation with the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Croatia, with the support of the Croatian Pediatric Society and the Croatian Society for Social and Preventive Pediatrics.
In addition to the Minister of Culture and Media, dr. sc. Nina Obuljen Koržinek, the MONDIACULT 2025 World Conference was attended by Anja Jelavić, Director of the Directorate for International Cultural Cooperation and European Affairs, and Rut Carek, Head of the UNESCO Service and Secretary General of the Croatian Commission for UNESCO.