[Ecommerce] Canada first State to ratify UNESCO Cultural diversity convention

[Manon Ress]

http://www.mcc.gouv.qc.ca/international/diversite-culturelle/eng/
convention_ratification/index.html

The Director-General of UNESCO, Ko=EFchiro Matsuura, and the President
of the General Conference, Ambassador Musa Bin Jaafar Bin Hassan,
signed on 9 December 2005, the text of the Convention on the
Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions,
adopted at the 33rd session of the General Conference last October
20, 2005. This signature certifies the six language versions of the
Convention, thus opening the path for its ratification by Member
States. The Convention will enter into force three months after its
ratification by 30 States Parties.

Already, Canada has become the first State to ratify this Convention.
And the Director-General of UNESCO, Ko=EFchiro Matsuura, welcomed this
first ratification of the new Convention.

Why must States ratify this Convention?

Several national and international promoters as well commonly agree
in recognizing that pressures regarding the diversity of cultural
expressions become more and more numerous in the present context of
free trade exchanges and technological developments. They indeed
underline that trade agreements have been placing increasing pressure
on countries to give up their right to have cultural policies to
ensure their citizens have access to their own culture, as well as
culture from other countries around the world. This is why the UNESCO
Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions is so important:

The result of a long process of maturation, including numerous
meetings of independent and then governmental experts, as emphasized
by l=92UNESCO, the Convention establishes internationally the
recognition of the sovereign right for States and Governments to draw
up and implement cultural policies allowing the development of strong
cultural sectors which may contribute to a genuine cultural diversity
nationally and internationally. It further emphasizes the importance
of overture to other world cultures, in the same manner as it
reaffirms the links binding culture, development and dialogue, and
creates an innovative platform for international cooperation.

It recognizes the distinctive nature of cultural goods and services
as transmitters of value, identity, and meaning that transcend their
commercial dimension. Therefore, as soon as it takes effect, it will
become possible to use it as a reference instrument for those States
undergoing pressures to liberalize their cultural sectors, be it at
the World Trade Organization (WTO) or during bilateral or
multilateral negotiations.

The Convention will also be used as an international forum to debate
the challenges set to the diversity of cultural expressions and to
the sensitive sector of cultural policies that support it . Through
the follow up and implementation instruments that it sets up, it will
thus create an appropriate momentum for solving the problems
encountered by the States who would wish to embrace cultural policies.

The Convention will furthermore become a cooperation lever with
developing countries that strive at creating durable cultural
industries on their territory.
The Convention will enter into force three months after the
registering date of the thirtieth ratification instrument. In order
for the first Conference of the Parties to meet as quickly as
possible, that is within the next UNESCO General Conference as soon
as Fall 2007, the thirtieth ratification instrument should be
registered on June 30, 2007 at the latest, thus allowing the
Convention to become effective on September 30. If this deadline
could not be met, the first Conference of the Parties could only be
held by Fall 2009, upon the following UNESCO General Conference.

Consequently, for the Convention to have a real scope, ratifications
should rapidly come from a large number of States and from all
regions of the world: Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. On one
hand, the larger the number of Parties to the Convention the more the
Convention shall take its due place into the international law
system, and the more its objectives and the means to attain them
shall become recognized, on the other hand .

In our future issues, we will progressively indicate, as soon as
possible, the States that have ratified the Convention or pledged to
do so, thus allowing you to have a better follow up of that progress.

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

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