[Ecommerce] Seattle story about "US out cold in UNESCO diversity pact"

[Manon Ress]

Thursday, October 20, 2005 =B7 Last updated 1:25 p.m. PT
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103AP_UNESCO_Culture_Vote.html

U.S. out in cold in UNESCO diversity pact

By JOELLE DIDERICH
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

PARIS -- UNESCO's member nations voted overwhelmingly Thursday to
approve a pact on protecting cultural diversity after a bitter debate
left the United States isolated in opposition to what it sees as a
threat to sales of American movies and music.

The convention - championed by the European Union and Canada - aims
to promote ethnic traditions and minority languages and to protect
those local cultures from the negative effects of globalization,
UNESCO said.

The United States argued the convention could be used to erect trade
barriers against cultural exports such as films and pop music as well
as indirectly curtail free speech.

Calling the text "deeply flawed," the U.S. delegation proposed 28
amendments to the draft, but all were rejected. Delegates voted 148-2
to approve the pact. The United States and Israel opposed it and four
nations abstained.

U.S. Ambassador Louise Oliver told the meeting the text was "too open
to misinterpretation and too prone to abuse for us to support."

The dispute left the United States isolated just two years after it
rejoined the U.N. cultural agency following a 19-year absence over
wide-ranging disagreements with UNESCO.

Oliver called the outcome "extraordinarily disappointing" and said it
could have lasting consequences on relations between the U.S.
government and UNESCO, although she stopped short of threatening a
new withdrawal.

"I would say that we're not currently considering any such
possibilities, but obviously this process is going to raise some
questions that will have to be discussed when I get back to
Washington," she said in an interview.

UNESCO's biannual general conference did reach consensus agreements
for a declaration on bioethics and a convention against doping in
sports, but U.S. officials said other members weren't willing to
compromise on the cultural diversity pact.

"This convention is different. It has been handled differently. It
does not have the process of dialogue and openness and transparency
that the others have had," Oliver told The Associated Press.

Britain, speaking on behalf of the EU because it holds the rotating
presidency of the 25-nation bloc, said Monday that there had been
ample debate on the convention and urged UNESCO members to approve
the text without changes.

Timothy Craddock, the British ambassador to UNESCO, hailed the text's
passage Thursday.

"With this convention, cultural diversity, currently under threat
particularly in the poorest countries, will become a right we all
share," he said. "Just as much as we shall all share the duty to
preserve it."

The convention needs to be ratified separately by 30 member states.


************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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