Eurasia Online Session to Discuss the Rome Charter

UCLG-Eurasia held a discussion of the document of the Rome Charter on culture 2020. The online meeting took place on September 21, 2020. The session was moderated by Secretary General of UCLG-Eurasia Rasikh Sagitov; and the World Secretariat from the city of Barcelona, Spain, was represented by Jordi Pascual, Coordinator of the UCLG Committee on Culture.

As a reminder, the first draft Charter was presented by Luca Bergamo, Vice-Mayor of Rome and Vice-President of the UCLG Committee on Culture, on May 29, 2020, during meetings of the UCLG Executive Bureau. The Charter is aligned with the Decalogue of the UCLG Presidency for the post COVID-19 era and defines culture as one of the key priorities of the UCLG’s advocacy work in the coming years.

To make its own contribution to the development of the Charter, UCLG-Eurasia organized an online discussion of the document involving local and regional governments, representatives of municipalities, public structures and specialists in the field of culture.

Coordinator of UCLG Committee on Culture Jordi Pascual welcomed the participants. “From the very beginning of the work of the UCLG Committee on Culture that was established 15 years ago, our main goal was to promote efficient tools for developing cultural life of cities around the world. The Rome Charter is one of such tools that implies the realization of citizens’ rights for participation in the cultural life of cities”, Jordi Pascual highlighted in his speech.

Minister of External Relations and Peoples’ Affairs of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Gavril Kirillin noted that one of the key objectives of the cultural policy is preservation of traditional cultural heritage. According to Gavril Kirillin, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) creates conditions for revival, preservation and development of historical traditions established within the territory of the republic, folk art, and national holidays, guarantees equal rights of peoples living in the republic related to creation, preservation, dissemination and acquisition of cultural values.

According to Chairman of the Public Chamber of Nizhny Novgorod Gennady Ryabov, it is remarkable that such a world’s largest institution as the United Cities and Local Governments World Organization has defined the issue of the “Place of culture in the sustainable development of our communities” as one of the key areas of its activity.

The city of Nizhny Novgorod supports key provisions of the text of the draft Rome Charter 2020 and suggests to complement the table of verbs-actions with three more verbs: to respect (another person, another culture and traditions of other peoples), to study (to be tolerant, understand and accept diversity of cultures and traditions), to preserve (in the era of globalization the national cultural identity).

Adviser to the Mayor of Krasnoyarsk Dmitry Shesterikov told about how key provisions of the Charter correlate with urban projects in the field of culture already now. Among them are the Street Theatre Festival, cultural events in urban public spaces, etc.

Mayor of Comrat Sergey Anastasov mentioned the link between culture and ecological aspects of the cities’ development. He stressed the importance of support from international organizations in the implementation of cultural and social projects on the ground.

Vice-Mayor of the city of Osh Emilbek Shadykhanov also highlighted the relevance of provisions of the document and told about the active participation of citizens in urban cultural projects. Besides, in 2019, Osh became the capital of the Turkish world, and most activities took place within the framework of that event.

The participants of the online conference included Head of the Department for International and Intermunicipal Relations of the Kazan Municipality Ruslan Galiakhmetov, Head of the Department of Culture of Bishkek Urmat Belekbaev, Deputy Head of the Department of Culture of the Yekaterinburg Administration Elena Trofimova, as well as representatives of Irkutsk, Voronezh, Novosibirsk, Kaliningrad, etc.

Besides, the Secretariat of UCLG-Eurasia received many responses on the text of the Rome Charter from our members in written form. The following cities provided their expert opinions on the draft Rome Charter 2020: Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Vologda, Krasnodar, and Penza.

Thanks for participation!

21.09.2020

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