CCA Bul­letin 16/07

April 10 2007

Just the facts

As announced in the CCA’s Jan­u­ary 24 Bul­letin, the UNESCO Con­ven­tion on the pro­tec­tion and pro­mo­tion of the diver­sity of cul­tural expres­sions has come into force on March 18, 2007. Devel­op­ments in this file con­tinue to occur rapidly and inter­na­tional sup­port for this impor­tant treaty is grow­ing. Fifty-six coun­tries are now par­ties to the Con­ven­tion and more are expected to join in the com­ing months.

In express­ing the delight of the gov­ern­ment on the progress of the Con­ven­tion, Canada’s Her­itage Min­is­ter, the Hon. Bev Oda, reit­er­ated on March 16 that Canada would stand as a can­di­date for elec­tion to the Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Com­mit­tee. Min­is­ter Oda reaf­firmed the Cana­dian government’s resolve to remain a leader as the cam­paign for the Con­ven­tion enters the cru­cial imple­men­ta­tion phase

The first Con­fer­ence of Par­ties, the Convention’s high­est gov­ern­ing body, will take place at UNESCO’s Paris head­quar­ters June 18–20. The meet­ing will include the for­mal­i­ties of cre­at­ing a new body, such as approv­ing its own rules of pro­ce­dure. The Con­fer­ence must decide modal­i­ties and elect 24 coun­tries to serve on an Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Com­mit­tee, which is the oper­a­tional body of the Con­ven­tion. The Con­fer­ence will also deal with the man­date of the Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Com­mit­tee, and the rules, com­mit­ments and types of projects that will be funded by the Inter­na­tional Fund for Cul­tural Diver­sity. The first meet­ing of the Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Com­mit­tee is expected in early 2008.

In a sig­nif­i­cant devel­op­ment, UNESCO has cre­ated a new Sec­re­tariat on Cul­tural Expres­sions and has opened a web­site specif­i­cally for the Con­ven­tion. In addi­tion to admin­is­ter­ing the new Con­ven­tion, this Sec­re­tariat will be respon­si­ble for UNESCO’s Uni­ver­sal Copy­right Con­ven­tion, the Flo­rence Agree­ment, the Rec­om­men­da­tions Con­cern­ing the Sta­tus of the Artist and the Global Alliance for Cul­tural Diver­sity. The Sec­re­tariat will also look after the Obser­va­tory on the Social Sta­tus of Artists as well as the even­tual Anti-Piracy Obser­va­tory cur­rently under consideration.

In report­ing on its con­tin­u­ing cam­paign to pro­mote the Con­ven­tion, the Inter­na­tional Net­work for Cul­tural Diver­sity (INCD) says, “the effec­tive­ness of the Con­ven­tion as a shield for cul­tural poli­cies against the trade and invest­ment agree­ments, and a pos­i­tive tool for cul­tural devel­op­ment, will increase with each new State Party.” INCD also reit­er­ates its objec­tives for the imple­men­ta­tion of the Convention:

• Ensur­ing a mean­ing­ful role for civil groups in the processes and delib­er­a­tions and a for­mal place at the meet­ings of the Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Committee.
• Ensur­ing State Par­ties will make a sub­stan­tial com­mit­ment of new resources to the Inter­na­tional Fund for Cul­tural Diversity.
• Ensur­ing UNESCO will pro­vide an appro­pri­ate frame­work and begin to col­lect the impor­tant cul­tural diver­sity data.
• Ensur­ing appro­pri­ate pro­ce­dures to encour­age coun­tries to work together to mon­i­tor devel­op­ments in other forums (par­tic­u­larly the trade nego­ti­a­tions) and to col­lab­o­rate to achieve the objec­tives of the Con­ven­tion. This should be a key part of the man­date of the Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Com­mit­tee and the respon­si­bil­i­ties of the secretariat.
• Ensur­ing mech­a­nisms to guar­an­tee the imple­men­ta­tion of the com­mit­ments to pro­mote sus­tain­able cul­tural devel­op­ment. This also should be explicit in the man­date and the secretariat.

Tell me more

A detailed analy­sis of the Con­ven­tion is now avail­able on the CCA website

Cana­dian cul­tural activist and for­mer CCA Vice-President Garry Neil has authored a com­pre­hen­sive study of the Con­ven­tion. Mr. Neil reviews its back­ground, includ­ing the WTO’s Cana­dian mag­a­zine case, sum­ma­rizes its pro­vi­sions and ana­lyzes its poten­tial impact. The study is con­tained in a new book UNESCO’s Con­ven­tion on the Pro­tec­tion and Pro­mo­tion of the Diver­sity of Cul­tural Expres­sions: Mak­ing it Work, edited by Nina Obul­jen and Joost Smiers and pub­lished by Cul­ture­Link Net­work, The CCA is very grate­ful to the author and edi­tors for hav­ing kindly autho­rized the repro­duc­tion of Mr. Neil’s chap­ter on our website.

For more infor­ma­tion, please visit the Inter­na­tional Net­work for Cul­tural Diver­sity web­site and that of the Coali­tion for Cul­tural Diver­sity.