Discussion paper for World Summit to be held in Stockholm Spring 2023

“Freedom of expression is a corner-stone of democracy. As one of Sweden’s four constitutional laws, this human right lies at the core of our cultural policy. It is manifested by the parliament in our main cultural policy objective that culture should be a dynamic, challenging and independent force based on freedom of expression.

Then as now, safeguarding and strengthening artistic freedom is vitally important, as it is continually challenged across the globe by (self-) censorship, threats, imprisonment and, at times, death. We are honoured to have been given the opportunity to cohost the 9th World Summit on Arts and Culture with the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA), to bring together members of the international arts and culture community and explore artistic freedom as the Summit theme, to share our experiences working in this area and to learn from the experiences of others.:

– Swedish Arts Council