[Ecommerce] Notes from the Road: UNESCO expert meeting on the draft convention on the protection of cultural contents and artistic expressions

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

Notes from the road: 2nd Session of the Intergovernmental Meeting of
Experts on the preliminary draft convention on the protection of the
diversity of cultural contents and artistic expressions, UNESCO,
February 7-8


Thiru Balasubramaniam

Dr. Manon Ress and I attended part of the 2nd Session of the
Intergovernmental Meeting of Experts on the preliminary draft convention
on the protection of the diversity of cultural contents and artistic
expressions held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris from Jan 31-Feb 12,
2005. The impetus behind this exercise is predicated upon the question
of whether cultural goods and services are mere commodities or deserve
special exemptions from the global trading system.

What is perhaps particularly dismaying is at least 16 references to
intellectual property in the draft text of the UNESCO convention on
cultural diversity without mention of the obligations to protect access
to knowledge, the public domain, and the cultural commons.

On Monday, February 7, 2005, the plenary discussed articles 13 and 19 of
the draft convention on cultural diversity. Article 13 dealt with
international consultation and coordination and Article 19 dealt the
relationship of this convention to other instruments. For a detailed,
blow-by-blow, account of this plenary session, please consult the Media
Trade Monitor=92s (http://www.mediatrademonitor.org/node/view/176) blog by
Sasha Costanza-Chock. For the CRIS+ Statement regarding intellectual
property provisions in the draft Convention please see:
http://www.mediatrademonitor.org/node/view/180. CPTech is a signatory of
this statement.

 From a first timer=92s perspective, the government delegations
representing UNESCO Member States were quite accessible to NGOs. One
complaint we had was the fact that there were only two computers
available for over 200 participants.

On Tuesday, February 8, 2005, the plenary discussed provisions related
to ratification of the instrument; the afternoon was devoted to drafting
groups.

In discussions with some government and NGO delegations, we were
informed that two political considerations were the prime movers behind
this convention, particular the endeavours to have an instrument before
the end of 2005. One consideration was the upcoming WTO Ministerial in
Hong Kong although it now seems that this is not the prime mover behind
certain delegations haste in concluding a convention. We were informed
that a European Community Member State was pushing for a quick
conclusion of the treaty because it wanted yet another legally binding
instrument it could use to justify cultural exemptions in the debate on
the European Constitution within the European  Union. We were told off
the record that even industrialized country Members of UNESCO felt that
intellectual property did belong in this Convention, but would not
publicly oppose its inclusion in the Convention, even in the drafting
group stage.

It appears that this 2nd meeting of experts must submit a revised text
by March 7, 2005 which falls within the mandatory 7 month cut off before
the next UNESCO General Assembly. It is expected that a 3rd
intergovernmental meeting will take place in May 2005.