From Declaration to Action

From Declaration to Action

The collections currently located in Berlin and across European institutions include an overwhelming majority of cultural, spiritual, and intellectual materials, that carry deep historical, spiritual, and epistemic significance for peoples and have impacted communities globally. Almost all were acquired through colonial violence and dispossession. This perpetuates loss, inequality, injustice and enduring trauma which urgently calls for processes of repair and transformation.

The Federal Ministry of Culture (The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media), the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, the Stiftung Humboldt Forum (im Berliner Schloss), the Ethnological Museum and Museum of Asian Art have provided essential support and encouragement for the Global Cultural Assembly 2022, the creation of the Preparatory Group, the Global Cultural Assembly 2025 and the emergent Global Cultural Embassy.

The Global Cultural Assembly is a movement informed by multiple, transterritorial, historical and judicial efforts, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UNESCO 1970 Convention, and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 to transform cultural institutions into spaces of equity, accountability, and repair.

A Global Cultural Embassy provides a rare opportunity to model institutional transformation and move global museology towards restorative justice. This resolution is approved, supported and reaffirmed by the delegates of the Global Cultural Assembly 2025.

We, the delegates to the Global Cultural Assembly 2025, invite the Federal Ministry of Culture of Germany (The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media), the Stiftung Humboldt Forum (im Berliner Schloss), the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, the Ethnological Museum and Museum of Asian Art to continue supporting the elected Reference Group over the next 6 six years as we all work towards the creation of a Global Cultural Embassy.

Berlin, June 21, 2025