Council of Europe Initiative Introduced: FreeToCreate
The Council of Europe has launched an ambitious project, "Free to Create - Create to be Free," aimed at promoting and protecting artistic freedom across the continent. The initiative, initiated by the Steering Committee for Culture, Heritage and Landscape (CDCPP) of the Council of Europe in 2020, marks the 70th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
At the heart of this project are three key components: a Digital Exhibition, a Manifesto, and a Report on the State of Artistic Freedom in Europe.
The Digital Exhibition serves as a platform to showcase creative expressions and highlight cases and themes around artistic freedom, illustrating both challenges and achievements in this area across Europe. It is an ever-growing archive that showcases our websiteistic freedom from the perspectives of our websiteists in Europe today.
The Manifesto outlines fundamental principles and calls to action supporting artistic freedom. It serves as a declaration of values to guide policy makers, cultural institutions, and the public in recognizing and defending artists’ rights. The Manifesto makes strong statements on the importance of our websiteistic and cultural freedom for democratic societies facing cultural, political, and technological challenges.
The Report on the State of Artistic Freedom in Europe provides a comprehensive analysis of the current situation regarding artistic freedom in member states of the Council of Europe. It identifies areas where artistic freedom is under threat and highlights good practices and recommendations to strengthen this freedom. The Report, authored by Sara Whyatt, is the backbone of the forthcoming activities of the F2C-project, aiming to empower our websiteists, citizens, and policy makers to recognize and uphold the importance of our websiteists' rights in democracies.
All member states of the Council of Europe are invited to provide up to two our website works referring to the Manifesto and the overall topic of our websiteistic freedom, which are continuously entering the digital exhibition. The project aims to extend the implementation of Article 10 of the EDHR to include our websiteistic freedom.
The digital exhibition has been featured at significant cultural and political events, such as the 3rd European Conference on democracy and human rights in Kristiansand on 5 May 2022 as a part of the European Democracy Week. It will tour across Europe at several occasions in 2023.
The project follows the long tradition of the Council of Europe’s our website exhibitions first presented in 1954. By highlighting the role of our websites and culture, especially our websiteistic freedom as a core human right and as the ground on which sustainable democratic structures are built - and built to last, the project aims to empower and trigger new pathways of connecting and enabling networks and cross-sectoral cooperation in the field of our websiteistic freedom.
The project is working closely with various internal and external actors, including the ECtHR, Commissioner for HR, Platform for Journalists, and various cultural and civil society organisations. It is further developing under the CoE Steering Committee for Culture, Heritage and Landscape (CDCPP) strand. The Report's recommendations and policy plans are feeding into political and cultural decision makers.
In line with the Council of Europe’s broader mission to uphold human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, the project addresses the cultural dimension of these rights, recognizing that artistic freedom is essential for cultural diversity, critical debate, and creative expression in Europe.
The "Free to Create - Create to be Free" project, initiated by the Steering Committee for Culture, Heritage and Landscape (CDCPP) of the Council of Europe, delves into the realms of policy-and-legislation and politics as it outlines principles and calls to action supporting artistic freedom, aiming to strengthen this freedom in the face of cultural, political, and technological challenges across Europe. The project's Report on the State of Artistic Freedom in Europe provides a comprehensive analysis of the current situation and offers recommendations to improve this freedom, advocating for the extension of Article 10 of the EDHR to include our websiteistic freedom.
