| • The third meeting of the Coalitions and professional organisations from countries member of the Francophonie took place in Quebec, Canada, from October 11 to 13, 2008, on the eve of the XIIth Francophonie Summit of Heads of States and Governments. Consult the Déclaration de Québec (in French).
• Exchange session between the civil society and the Parties to the Convention (June 23, 2008): Read the conclusions
• The German Commission for UNESCO has launched a call for contribution of young professionals for capacity building, within the framework of the program Cultural Diversity 2030.
The deadline for submission is June 30, 2008. See the call
• The French Coalition for Cultural Diversity is concerned about the threats that the inclusion of a cultural cooperation protocol in the free trade agreements now being negotiated with India and Korea would represent to the European cultural industry. These concerns were notified in a letter dated February 26, 2008 to Mrs Albanel, French Culture Minister, to Mr Peter Mandelson, Commissioner for External Trade and to Mrs Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media at the European Commission in Brussels. See the answers received from Mrs Albanel on April 24th 2008 and from Mr Mandelson on May 10th 2008.
• The first session of the Intergovernmental Committee on the Protection and Promotion of Diversity of Cultural Expressions took place in Ottawa (Canada) from 10th to 13th December 2007.
Two hundred participants attended the first session of the IGC of the 2005 UNESCO Convention : 23 delegations out of 24 (Senegal was not represented), observers from the 17 countries which have ratified the Convention but are not members of the IGC, observers from the 17 countries which are not members of the Convention and representatives from 6 NGOs, among which the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (IFCCD)
Refer to the speech the IFCCD made in the name of the NGOs present on:
Official speeches, decisions and documents are available on the UNESCO site.
• Coalitions for Cultural Diversity from 37 countries of all continents and representing organizations from the cultural and the arts sectors who gathered in Seville, Spain from September 18-19, 2007, declare the official creation of the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (IFCCD). The Federation recognized the 42 existing coalitions as its founding members.
Consult the the declaration (.pdf file).
• The 1st Conference of Parties to the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions took place in Paris, UNESCO Headquarters, June 18-20, 2007.
The purpose of this first Conference of Parties was to establish the operational and monitoring organs of the Convention.
Consult the Summary of this Conference and the contribution of the International Liaison Committee (ILC)
La première conférence des Parties de la Convention UNESCO sur la protection de la diversité des expressions culturelles s'est tenue à Paris du 18 au 20 juin. Cette première réunion avait pour objet de mettre en place les organes de fonctionnement et de suivi de la Convention.
Consultez le compte-rendu de cette réunion ainsi que la contribution du Comité International de Liaison (CIL)
• The national Coalitions for cultural diversity, including the French Coalition, met from 15 to 17 March 2007 in Montreal to celebrate the entry into force of the UNESCO Convention on the protection and the promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions. They have adopted the Declaration attached here to.
• 40 cultural and development organisations are grateful to the Coalitions for cultural diversity and the International Liaison Committee of Coalitions for cultural diversity (ILC) for their contribution to the ratification campaign of the UNESCO Convention on the protection and the promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions. Consult the declaration
• Press Release, December 19th, 2006
EUROPE RATIFIES THE UNESCO CONVENTION FOR CULTURAL DIVERSITY
On December 18th 2006, 13 European States (Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden) ratified, together with the European Community, the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
This significant deed sees a number of 35 countries having now formally ratified the Convention.
The Convention on cultural diversity will officially come into force on March 18th, 2007 that is three months after registration of the 30th ratification instrument as specified in the text of the Convention.
The ten European coalitions for cultural diversity (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia Spain and Switzerland) together with 26 other national coalitions world wide, have been fighting for close to 5 years to make this Convention a reality and to see internationally recognised the legitimate right of each state to adopt and implement the cultural policies they deem necessary in their own territory.
The European Coalitions pay tribute to the work accomplished by the European Union on this issue.
They are now inviting governments of the most advanced countries to contribute to the Fund for Cultural Diversity specially designed by the Convention to support developing cultural industries in less advanced countries.
The European Coalitions for cultural diversity are members of the International Liaison Committee of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity that groups together 36 coalitions worldwide (Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Benin, Brésil, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, France, Germany, Guinea, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mali, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Niger, Paraguay, Peru, Senegal, Spain, Slovakia, Switzerland, Togo, Tunisia, Uruguay and Venezuela).
• Press Release, December 4, 2006
The European Creative Sector denounces the will of the European Commission to phase out private copy levies without any democratic debate. click here
• The members of the european coalitions have met in Brussels on 13th and 14th November to discuss the advancement of the ratification process of the UNESCO Convention, differents aspects of the cultural policy of the European Union and the coalitions’ projected actions for 2007.
• The
European Community approves
the UNESCO Convention on
the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural
Expressions, 18/05/2006
• The
European Coalitions for Cultural Diversity have met
for the second time on January 17 and 18, 2006 in Brussels. Pascal
Rogard, President and Michel
Gautherin, treasurer, were representing the
French Coalition for Cultural Diversity. Consult the final
declaration.
•
Official text of the Convention on
the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural
Expressions, adopted on 20 October 2005
•
Artists committed to cultural diversity : on
Monday 10 October at 3 p.m., the French Coalition for
cultural diversity invites artists to speak out on
the content of the future Convention on the Protection
and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions,
one week before the UNESCO General Conference’s
vote on the draft Convention. Download
the press release.
• On May 9
to 11, leaders of 170 cultural organizations
representing authors, composers, directors performing
artists, technicians, writers, visual and plastic artists,
and new media artists, as well as independent producers,
publishers, broadcasters and distributors from 60 countries
gathered in Madrid,
Spain for discussions focusing on the theme “Cultural
Diversity: A new pillar of the international legal system”,
endorsed the following declaration.
Consult the final declaration (english
version, french
version, spanish
version)
International Liaison
Committee of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity
(Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso,
Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Ireland, Republic
of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Peru, Senegal,
Spain, Slovakia, Togo, Uruguay)
January 27, 2005
ILC Position on the Preliminary
Draft Convention on the protection of cultural contents
and artistic expressions
The international Liaison Committee of
Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (ILC) met in Paris
January 26 and 27 2005 to discuss recent developments
in the process for developing an international Convention
on the protection of the diversity of cultural contents
and artistic expressions now underway at UNESCO.
After studying the revised draft text prepared by the
drafting committee during its December 14-17 meeting,
as well as the written comments of UNESCO’s member
states, the ILC adopted the following position with
respect to the Convention, which it proposes be renamed
the “Convention on the protection, promotion and
development of cultural contents and artistic expressions”.
The ILC reiterates the principles that should guide
these negotiations:
- Cultural goods and services are vectors of the identity
of peoples and cannot be reduced solely to commercial
merchandise
- The access to a diversity of cultural content, originating
from countries from all regions of the world, is a fundamental
right
- Only the application of true national cultural policies
can enable the development of cultural production in
each country, thereby making this diversity possible.
Clearly focus the scope of the Convention
The ILC considers it essential to keep the scope of
the Convention text focused squarely on the diversity
of cultural contents and artistic expressions. This
means recognizing in international law the sovereign
right of States to develop, implement and maintain cultural
policies designed to ensure a space for national cultural
creation—that is, policies to encourage the creation,
production and distribution of books, films and television
programs; music, the performing arts, visual arts, new
media and other cultural contents and artistic expressions,
whatever the medium, mode of exploitation or distribution
technology used.
Affirm genuine rights and obligations
for States
The sovereign right of countries to adopt their own
cultural policies must be enshrined unequivocally as
the central objective of the Convention. In this context,
Section III, which addresses the rights and obligations
of States, is at the centre of the Convention. Section
III must permit States to take measures to protect and
promote the diversity of their cultural expressions.
This right must not be limited to situations where cultural
diversity is “threatened or in a situation of
vulnerability”—a concern that is raised
by the current wording of Article 6.
Nor must the scope and reach of the measures that States
may adopt be unduly constrained by the application of
the principle of ‘proportionality’ (art.
2.8) as criteria for determining the admissibility of
a given measure. This principle could be replaced by
a criterion that would instead seek to assess whether
a given measure favoring national cultural production
unfairly restrains access to a diversity of other cultures
from around the world.
Put in place true international cooperation
The Convention must itself be an instrument for international
cooperation in favour of cultural development and must
not simply defer this issue to the cooperation agreements
concluded among States as is currently envisaged in
Article 12.
The ILC supports the establishment of a Cultural Diversity
Observatory as provided for in Article 15 in order to
collect, analyze and distribute information concerning
the diversity of cultural expressions. The Observatory
should be put in place and operated with the participation
of organizations representing cultural professionals.
Article 16 should be revised to explicitly provide
for the establishment of an International Fund for the
Development and Promotion of Cultural Diversity to which
all States Parties to the Convention should participate
and to which cultural professional organizations should
also be associated.
Ensure States are coherent in their
international commitments
The Convention must provide for a clear engagement,
in unambiguous terms, by which States commit to uphold
the objectives of this Convention in other fora, notably
by abstaining from liberalization commitments on culture
in the context of international trade agreements. To
this end, the ILC proposes that Article 13 be revised
so that States categorically undertake to refrain from
making commitments in other fora that would be contrary
to the objectives of the Convention.
Strengthened in this fashion, Article 13 could play
a key role in establishing the Convention as the international
legal instrument of reference on questions relating
to cultural policies, a reference that the signatory
countries can cite as the basis for refusing to make
liberalization commitments contrary to the objectives
of the Convention.
Assign legal weight to the Convention
The Convention must not be subordinated to other international
instruments. It must have the same weight as other international
instruments, including trade agreements, and must serve
as the reference with respect to the measures that States
may take to ensure a genuine diversity of cultural contents
and artistic expressions. This matter is addressed in
Article 19 of the draft text, which presents two possible
options for defining the relationship between this convention
and other international instruments. Of the two proposed
options, the Coalitions urge the Member States of UNESCO
to use Option A as a starting point, but recommend that
the current wording be amended to afford States greater
latitude to take measures to pursue cultural policies
in favour of cultural diversity in situations where
countries have previously taken liberalization commitments
on culture in other international instruments.
Create an effective dispute settlement
mechanism
The Convention must contain a provision formally binding
States Parties to use the mechanism provided for in
the Convention for resolving disputes between them.
The dispute settlement mechanism must also be one that
can be activated unilaterally by one State Party, and
not solely in the case of a joint request by two parties
as is specified in the current wording of Article 24
of the draft text. Moreover, the two parties to a dispute
must clearly be bound by the decision rendered. It will
only be possible to characterize the UNESCO Convention
as a binding instrument if it contains an effective
dispute settlement mechanism.
It is imperative that the Convention
be adopted by 2005
The ILC considers it imperative that the Convention
be ready for adoption at UNESCO’s next General
Conference in October 2005. The intense pressures being
applied to culture in trade negotiations make it imperative
that the Convention be adopted before the conclusion
of the WTO’s current round of trade negotiations,
as well as the proliferation of bilateral free trade
agreements, pre-empts the Convention of its very purpose.
It is therefore essential that States abstain from making
liberalization requests or offers relating to culture
in the context of the bilateral or multilateral negotiations
now underway.
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