UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity

PARIS -- The UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity is being "hotly" debated in Paris through to 15 February. Daily reports from CRIS Campaign and Media Trade Monitor describe the various attempts to draft the convention towards the benefit of a handful of national states at the expense of the cultural diversity they claim to protect.

http://www.mediatrademonitor.org/node/view/159
(Includes links to key documents).

This is a very important Convention as it could provide a set of instruments and legal frameworks to ensure cultural diversity and artistic expression is sustained despite the attempts of Free Trade Agreements to usurp these freedoms.

Crucial to this debate is the intervention on Article 19 of draft UNESCO convention.

http://www.mediatrademonitor.org/node/view/177

From the CRIS+ intervention on Article 19 delivered to the plenary of the II intergovernmental session; Monday, February 7 2005:

"We've heard many interventions stating that the current IPR regime is working well to promote diversity, but in fact as we all know the impact of the current intellectual property rights regime, which favors the rights of broadcasters and rights holders over the rights of authors, creators, and the public, on cultural diversity, is in fact contested. For example, look at the current discussion within the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) where Brazil, Argentina, and other States, strongly supported by civil society, have proposed to review the effectiveness of present IP regimes in meeting the interests of developing countries. Such constructive moves could be reinforced by a more balanced treatment here of the relationship between intellectual property rights and cultural diversity. Certainly it would be better for the draft Convention to be neutral on the issue rather than to reinforce and strengthen the existing regime. This can be accomplished by deleting paragraph 1 of option A."