October 30, 2005
UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity
Final Text to be downloaded.
33rd General Session Conference
The 191-member U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is scheduled to vote on the final draft of the Convention at a meeting at its headquarters in Paris Thursday. A ballot on Monday found 151 nations in support of the pact, and two against -- the U.S. and Israel. Australia and the tiny island nation of Kiribati abstained.
According to the draft text (pdf document), sponsored by France and Canada, cultural expressions are "distinctive" and countries should be allowed "to maintain, adopt, and implement policies and measures that they deem appropriate for the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions on their territory".
Though diplomatic efforts to reach a consensus on the language of the draft are continuing, observers say they see no signs of flexibility in the U.S. position.
"This convention could be misused by governments to legitimise their controls over the flow of information," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza rice told member governments in a letter early this month. Rice said the proposed treaty could have a "chilling effect" on the ongoing negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). "This convention invites abuse by enemies of democracy and free trade," she added.
But those in support of the Convention argue that governments have the sovereign right to develop policies which nurture cultural growth and artistic expression beyond the dictates of trade agreements.
This approach is already evident in the cultural policies of France and Canada. Both countries have long used subsidies and quotas to protect their media industries against the growing influence of cultural globalisation, or what some call "Americanisation".
Some observers attribute Washington's hardened stance on the proposed treaty to pressure by powerful Hollywood companies and other U.S. media giants to resist any restrictions on the international trade in cultural products, including films, books and music.
"This line, however, overlooks the circumstance that unlike wheat or coal, cultural products are also intimately bound with matters of social identity and consciousness," writes Allen Scott, director of the Centre for Globalisation and Policy Research at the University of California.
"A rhetoric of pure market ideology misses a crucial point here," he reasons in a scholarly article entitled, "Hollywood in the Era of Globalisation: Opportunities and Predicaments".
Scott points out that major Hollywood production companies directly control distribution systems in all their principle foreign markets. For example, United International Pictures, a joint venture by Paramount and Universal, owns distribution facilities in as many as 37 countries, including Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and Japan.
With the 25-member European Union (EU) fully supporting the Convention, its current president, Britain, has tried hard to convince the U.S. to join the treaty, but it is unlikely that Washington will change its mind, according to observers who closely watched the negotiations.
La convention sur la diversité culturelle en débat à l'Unesco, par Nicole Vulser, Le Monde....
Interview given by M. Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, Minister for Culture and Communication, to the “Libération” newspaper
Le Devoir , October 11, 2005. Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions: U.S. Secretary of State urges counterparts to delay adoption of UNESCO’s draft convention.
Will U.S. go into culture shock? UNESCO walls off Hollywood fare, by LIZA KLAUSSMANN, Variety (Oct 20, 2005).
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October 19, 2005
UNESCO Cult. Diversity Voted in
Oct. 18, 2005. 01:00 AM
Toronto Star
Cultural diversity policy voted in
Protection for national cultures
Only Israel, U.S. oppose convention
GRAHAM FRASER
NATIONAL AFFAIRS WRITER
Despite intense pressure from the United States not to, over 150 countries voted yesterday to create an international convention on cultural diversity.
Commission IV of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which has been meeting in Paris, voted 151 to 2 in favour of the Canadian initiative, with only the United States and Israel voting against.
The international agreement - formally the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions - reaffirms the right of sovereign states to "maintain, adopt and implement" policies that protect and promote cultural expression, and exempt certain cultural products from free-trade agreements.
The impetus behind the convention was the Chrétien government's 1999 attempt to protect the magazine industry in the face of pressure from the U.S., which successfully argued that the magazine law was in breach of the World Trade Organization's subsidy rules.
The campaign led to a remarkable coalition, not only between English- and French-speakers, but also between the federal and Quebec governments.
What brought them together and kept them united was their agreement that cultural products have a double quality: they involve identity as well as commercial value.
The U.S., which has consistently fought any guarantees for films that might put any restrictions on Hollywood, as well as opposing any subsidies for film production and magazines, has argued that UNESCO does not have the authority to enact the convention, and that it would interfere with the free flow of ideas.
More recently, a U.S.official argued that the convention could lead to censorship and, because of the focus on national culture, make intercultural activities more difficult.
Heritage Minister Liza Frulla said yesterday from Paris that the U.S., which returned to UNESCO after a long absence, first complained that it did not have enough time to study the convention, and then raised a different series of objections as time went on.
Frulla said that the U.S. put a lot of pressure on countries, with its Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, sending letters to foreign ministers, and U.S. ambassadors conducting an international diplomatic campaign against the convention.
But despite efforts by the U.S. to water down the convention, with the introduction of 27 amendments, the text was approved without modification.
The convention, to be voted on by UNESCO on Thursday, then has to be ratified by 30 countries within the next year in order to become a binding international instrument.
Vancouver publisher Scott McIntyre, co-chair of the Coalition for Cultural Diversity, yesterday applauded the vote, saying that it recognizes the right of countries to have cultural policies that establish national content quotas, subsidies, tax credit and foreign ownership rules to ensure that their citizens have access to their own culture.
"If you don't have these policies, you simply will not have a meaningful choice of Canadian books, music, films or television programs," he said. "This is what has been at stake all along in this debate."
Pierre Curzi, the other co-chair of the coalition, said yesterday that it was urgently important to have the UNESCO convention in place because of the pressure that countries were facing in trade negotiations to give up the right to protect their cultures.
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October 16, 2005
UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity
UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity
In 2001, Member States of UNECO adopted a “Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity.” This Declaration emphasized the principles of pluralism, respect for human rights, promotion of creativity, and international solidarity. At that time, the UNESCO General Assembly decided that “the question of cultural diversity as regards the protection of the diversity of cultural contents and artistic expression should be the subject of an international convention.”
In support of this, several meetings were held: in December 2003 and July 2005, the Director-General convened three meetings of independent experts; one meeting of the Drafting Committee; and three intergovernmental meetings.
A draft Convention was released in August 2005. In October 2005 at the General Conference of UNESCO, the Preliminary Report and Preliminary Draft of a Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions (Resolution 32C/34) will be submitted.
If adapted, the Convention would serve as an international legal agreement. It would implement the principle that culture cannot be reduced to a commodity. Pragmatically, it would potentially allow each country to exclude its cultural policies, including 'audiovisual services' from 'free trade' deals like the World Trade Organization (WTO). Services can include a range of items, including media.
Some civil society groups are concerned about the Draft. The International Network on Cultural Diversity (INCD) and the campaign for Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS), while calling for broad civil society support for the CCD, are worried that the Convention not be subordinated to the WTO, and that cultural and media diversity must be accounted for within and between countries.
INCD recommends the following:
1. “The status of the Convention must be equivalent to the trade and investment agreements and must prevail where the Parties are considering cultural policies and cultural diversity.
2. The Convention must be an effective tool for countries of the South to develop their creative capacity and cultural industries, consistent with other UNESCO instruments that recognize and promote the integral relationship of culture and development.
3. The Convention must acknowledge the broad scope of policy tools that are used to promote cultural diversity and preserve the right of governments to adapt and adopt new ones in the coming years in response to technological developments and changing circumstances and needs.”
Intellectual property rights are another key concern. Tempering the draft language which supports strong intellectual property rights to include respect and rights of the public domain, fair use, and creative commons has been encouraged. The fear is that the Convention will then only serve the interests of national media companies, rather than community-based and locally-produced media and cultural content.
The American Library Association (ALA) is concerned that the focus on “cultural goods and services” may generate intellectual property. Cultural goods include publications of all kinds, music, visual arts, and audiovisual and other media; in addition to services such as library services. ALA’s concern is to “ensure that the convention does not become yet another trade treaty promoting stricter (and unbalanced) intellectual property laws.”
On October 3, 2005, the Ottawa Roundtable on Cultural Diversity confirmed unequivocal support for the Convention. The Roundtable consisted of Minister of Canadian Heritage and Minister responsible for Status of Women, Liza Frulla; provincial and territorial Ministers responsible for culture, including Line Beauchamp, for Quebec; Madeleine Meilleur, for Ontario; and Eric Robinson, for Manitoba; and representatives of arts and cultural organizations (Canadian Heritage, 2005).
Resources
American Library Association. UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity.
Canadian Heritage. (October 3, 2005). Ottawa Roundtable on Cultural Diversity Confirms Unequivocal Support of Civil Society. News Release.
CRIS. CRIS/Media Trade update on UNESCO Draft Convention on Cultural Diversity.
International Network for Cultural Diversity. Comments on the Draft Declaration, 2004.
Media Trade Monitor. UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity Key Government Documents.
UNESCO. Preliminary Report by the Director-General accompanied by the Preliminary Draft of a Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions (33C/23, August 2005).
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