View D'Art report: Ethics in Cultural Policy
D'Art Topics in Arts Policy no.24, April 2008
IFACCA and Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Finland

Cultural rights are just one category of human rights; other common human rights being civic, political, economic and educational rights. This D'Art was used to help gather information for a project of Finland’s Ministry of Education, Science and Culture on the ethical dimensions of cultural policy. With the help of the D'Art process, the Ministry published a review document, Fair Culture? Ethical dimension of cultural policy and cultural rights, which develops a concept of ‘fair culture’ and explores the many ethical issues associated with cultural policies and practices. The publication argues that cultural rights are central to the identity, coherence and autonomy of nations. It identifies three main ways of viewing ethical issues in cultural policy (as cultural freedoms, as cultural rights and as cultural benefits), none of which is necessarily more 'correct' or valuable than the other.

Drafted by Hannele Koivunen and Leena Marsio, the D'Art report summarises the Ministry's research project to date, outlines future directions for the project, and provides an extract from the Ministry's Fair Culture? report.