Speech by the Minister of State for Culture, Margareth Menezes, at the opening ceremony of the sessions of the G20 Culture Working Group - Brasília, March 13, 2024

SERPRO Headquarters, Brasilia, Distrito Federal

Delegates of the G20 countries

Guest countries

and International Organizations

It is with great joy that I welcome you to the first meeting of the Culture Working Group of the G20 in Brasil.

To me, as Brasil's Minister of Culture, it is a great honor to be here today to mark the beginning of this working group's sessions.

At a time when Brasil has resumed its participation in international debates and taken on the G20 Presidency for the first time, we want to say that we are aware of the relevance of this moment due to the greatness that the G20 represents, and of the role it must play in building solutions to the grave global challenges we are facing in this moment in History.

This shows that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with his leadership, has been restoring Brasil's respect and place in the international environment.

In his relentless struggle and dedication to issues related to the basic necessities of those in need, President Lula defined the main theme of his Presidency of the G20, “Building a Just World and a Sustainable Planet”.

The topics of the Culture Working Group are aligned with this perspective, by seeking, through this forum, to strengthen the role of culture in promoting equality in the material and immaterial dimension, as well as affirming that culture is part of the solution so that we can reverse the climate changes that threaten our planet.

We understand that it is in Culture and in memory that we can seek the wisdom and knowledge to advance our agendas, so that we can understand and value the good practices of coexistence of social humanity and in harmony with the environment.

Culture has a central role in any country’s social development policies. For this reason, it must be seen as a strategic area in all its dimensions, promoting dialogue and seeking to build consensus in the elaboration of structural policies that can truly make sense in our quest to rescue the fraternal and human values of coexistence.

Culture is a potent resource for the promotion of peace and harmony!

Culture generates real results in terms of sustainable economic growth; it is a tool to counter inequalities and to promote transformation and social justice.

As Brasil's Minister of Culture, I hope that we may have the courage and the sensitivity required to advance on these issues, which are so urgent for the goals of Social Justice and Sustainable Development in search of a common agenda inside the area of Culture.

After successful meetings of this important group since 2023 in Saudi Arabia, including 2021 in Italy, 2022 in Indonesia, and 2023 in India, all of which I had the opportunity to participate in, we evaluate that the Culture Working Group has had significant advances, fostering an understanding of culture as an important component of the G20 meetings.

I would like to highlight some important landmarks obtained in Varanasi: we unanimously approved that Culture must be an autonomous objective in the post-2023 Development Agenda. This represents a big step forward, as it guaranteed the recognition of culture as a fundamental pillar for inclusive and sustainable development. In the G20 Leaders declaration in India, we succeeded in obtaining the approval of the leaders regarding the importance of the creative sector for inclusive growth; the role of culture as a means for sustainable development; and the need to take advantage of digital technologies to protect and promote cultural heritage.

During our presidency of the G20 Culture Working Group, we hope to continue to advance these efforts and to contribute to strengthening the cultural agenda at the multilateral level. For this year's agenda, we have defined 4 priority areas:

 1)  Cultural diversity and social inclusion;

2)  Culture, digital environments and copyright;

3) Creative economy and sustainable economic development;

4) Preservation, safeguarding, and promotion of cultural heritage and memory.

In the area of cultural diversity and social inclusion, we want to highlight the role of culture as an instrument for the exercise of citizenship, ensuring representation of different identitarian expressions in society. Every community must have its identity and culture respected, and intercultural dialogue must be seen as a strategy for peace.   

In the area of digital environment and copyright, we are aware of the challenges presented by the use of digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence.  To face this debate is to recognize that the cultural sector has the right to protect its work environment, and deserves to be compensated fairly for its copyrights in the digital environment. In addition to this, we must improve the regulatory environment of cultural workers.

 When talking about creative economy and sustainable development, we hope to deal with the current profile of global exchanges in the cultural market, and to discuss ways in which we may expand access and increase the circulation of cultural goods among our countries. We must take advantage of the strength of culture as a job and income generator which contributes to strengthening our countries’ economies. We also want to debate public policies and good practices for cultural workers in our countries.

Regarding the area of sustainable development, we want to introduce the issue of ancestral knowledge and the way it positively impacts the protection of the environment and sustainable development, as well as the role of culture in promoting the transformation of consciousness and behavior required to reverse the accelerated process of climate change.

Lastly, in the thematic area of preservation and promotion of cultural heritage – material and immaterial – and memory, we intend to discuss mechanisms for the protection of knowledge, practices, and traditions for indigenous communities.

 At the same time, we want to advance in the thematic areas of technical cooperation and partnerships for the development of digital technologies that will contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage.  

There are various fronts in which we want to take action, from the protection of live heritage to guaranteeing that indigenous communities have access to their cultural goods and heritage, which also touches upon the issue of restitution.

The discussions in this working group seek to advance the agendas of cultural diversity, creative economy, sustainable development, preservation and promotion of cultural heritage, thus reducing the asymmetries that exist among our countries.   

I hope we can take advantage of the experiences, perspectives, and knowledge that each of us bring to the table in order to build proposals that will contribute to the advancement of these areas.

Thank you all for being here. We look forward to your contributions so that the discussions can bear good fruit throughout this year.

I wish you all excellent work. Thank you very much.