[WSIS CS-Plenary] Coalition for Cultural Diversity (CCD)
Jesus Rodriguez Espinoza
jerodrigue at cantv.net
Mon Jan 5 21:31:41 GMT 2004
Hello Friends
A wish you the best for this new year and I want to thank on behalf of
Aporrea.org all your help and time during WSIS.
In Venezuela we´ve got lot of experiences in confronting FTA (specially FTAA
or ALCA in Spanish) and a real infowar laboratory (which we suffer and fight
every day since December 2002). The next Monterey Summit will be very
important to present new strategies.
Best regards and be should of our interest in cooperating with all the
initiatives that recognizes the right of minorities to express and to get
heard and those initiatives that underline the sovereignty of nation to
decide what economic or trade model best fit the interest of the majorities.
JRE
www.aporrea.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sasha Costanza-Chock" <schock at riseup.net>
To: <crischat at comunica.org>; <alt.wsis at lists.riseup.net>;
<prep-l at geneva03.org>; <plenary at wsis-cs.org>
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 2:48 PM
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Coalition for Cultural Diversity (CCD)
> I think this is a quite important development. The CCD seems to be
> catching fire with new countries joining every few months. We should
> make efforts to support the Convention on Cultural Diversity and any
> other mechanisms to keep culture (which includes media sectors) out of
> so-called free trade agreements.
>
> sc
>
> ---
> CCD Coalition Currents 5th issue - Dec 2003
> CCD
> Date 26.Dec.2003
> Read 8
> File Attach 2003.12 5th issue.htm 67.3857421875Kb
> Highlights:
>
> .As UNESCO Starts Work on the Cultural Diversity Convention, the
> Challenge Will be to Hold the Line on Culture in Trade Talks
>
> .Breaking News: Four Central American Countries Reach Tentative Free
> Trade Deal With U.S.; Large-Scale Liberation Commitments Seen for
> Cultural Sector
>
> .Australia: Mobilizing to Meet the Challenge to Culture in FTA
>
> .Korea’s Screen Quota Remains in the Cross-Hairs of Investment Treaty
> Talks With U.S.
>
> .Organizations of professionals from the Moroccan cultural milieu poised
> to form a coalition for cultural diversity to demand culture be excluded
> from the United States-Morocco free trade agreement
>
> .Creation in Burkina Faso of the 10th coalition for cultural diversity
>
> .Towards the Convention on Cultural Diversity: UNESCO Director General
> Convenes First Meeting of Experts Committee
>
> .Culture Ministers Network Continues Work In Support of Convention on
> Cultural Diversity with December Meeting in Paris
>
> .La Francophonie Secretary General Abdou Diouf meets with delegation of
> representatives of coalitions for cultural diversity
>
> .Coalition Representatives Take Part in Guadalajara Conference on
> Cultural Diversity
>
> .Brazilian Cinema Sector Turns Its Attention to the Cultural Diversity
> Movement; Supports Convention on Cultural Diversity at UNESCO
>
> .Franco-German roundtable on cultural diversity - Sarrebruck, November
> 20 and 21, 2003
>
> .The Dakar International Book Fair Unfolds Under the Theme of Cultural
> Diversity - Representatives of the Senegalese, Chilean and Canadian
> Coalitions Take Part
>
>
>
> * Vol. 1, No. 5, December 2003
>
> As UNESCO Starts Work on the Cultural Diversity Convention, the
> Challenge Will be to Hold the Line
> on Culture in Trade Talks
>
> In this final issue of Coalition Currents for 2003, we shift our
> attention back to one of the major threats to cultural
> diversity—the growing pressure on countries to give in during
> trade negotiations and give up their right to have cultural policies.
>
> UNESCO’s decision this past October to take on the development of an
> international convention on cultural diversity was a major victory for
> the cultural diversity movement. The UNESCO decision holds out hope that
> within two years a genuine international convention—a
> treaty—could be developed and adopted that would serve as a
> counterweight to international trade agreements by providing a legal
> foundation in international law for the sovereign right of countries to
> develop, implement and maintain their own cultural policies.
>
> In the months ahead there will be much work for organizations
> representing cultural professionals in countries around the world to
> ensure their country supports the convention—and to push to ensure
> that the end result is a true convention equal in weight to trade
> agreements such as the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
>
> But while the treaty is being developed it will be critical that the
> organizations representing artists and all cultural professionals
> mobilize to ensure that the battle is not lost in the meantime at the
> trade bargaining table.
>
> Because it is clear that in pursuit of its ultimate goal of achieving a
> completely liberalized cultural sector—of having cultural goods
> and services treated in exactly the same way as lumber, or auto
> parts—the United States has been following a clear strategy of
> proliferating bilateral and smaller-scale regional trade or investment
> negotiations.
>
> In all, the United States has such trade talks underway or announced
> with more than 20 countries.
>
> In the past year, the United States has concluded agreements with Chile
> and Singapore, and has reached the late stages of negotiations for Free
> Trade Agreements (FTA) with Australia, Morocco and the Central America
> Free Trade Area (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and
> Nicaragua), and for a Bilateral Investment Treaty with Korea. FTA
> negotiations are also in advanced stages with the Southern African
> Customs Union (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland).
>
> In light of the WTO Doha Round impasse at Cancun in September and the
> negligible progress in the Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiations,
> the U.S. has responded by increasing its emphasis on bilateral agreements.
>
> On November 18, the U.S. announced talksfor bilateral FTAs with the
> Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, followed three
> days later by the announcement of plans for a Bilateral Investment
> Treaty with Uruguay. Intentions to undertake an FTA with Thailand and
> Bahrain have also been announced.
>
> With the ‘entertainment’ sector of film, television, books and music
> being the single largest exporter in its economy, the United States
> views cultural production in strictly economic terms. Accordingly, it is
> aggressively seeking to conclude agreements in which its trading
> partners accede to demands that the sector be liberalized—meaning
> they forego the right to have culture policies designed to ensure a
> space for domestic production, including measures to support the
> development of national cultural industries.
>
> This is a battle to see that countries do not mortgage their future by
> giving up the right to introduce new cultural policies or adjust
> existing ones in response to changing circumstances. Protecting this
> capacity to introduce new policies in the future is a critical issue for
> all countries, but in particular for developing countries which in many
> cases do not yet have a comprehensive set of cultural policies in place
> but aspire to do so.
>
> With the WTO talks all but stalled, the clear objective of the U.S. is
> to establish enough bilateral precedents—10, 15 or more—in
> which countries agree to liberalize their cultural sectors, and then
> attempt to impose this model as a fait accompli when broader WTO talks
> and larger regional negotiations eventually resume.
>
> For this reason, each bilateral negotiation takes on relevance as a
> potential precedent other countries will have to contend with at the
> bargaining table. With this in mind, in the articles that follow we look
> at three negotiations entering the home stretch, how culture has come
> under pressure in these talks, and what the organizations representing
> artists and other cultural professionals in each country have been doing
> to meet this challenge.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Breaking News: Four Central American Countries Reach
> Tentative Free Trade Deal With U.S.; Large-Scale
> Liberation Commitments Seen for Cultural Sector
>
> El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua appear to have made
> significant liberalization commitments pertaining to the audiovisual
> sector and new digital media in Free Trade Agreement tentatively reached
> with the United States on December 17.
>
> A United States Trade Representative news release stated that the
> "Central American countries will accord substantial market access across
> their entire services regime, offering new access in sectors such as
> telecommunications (…) audiovisual and entertainment."
>
> With respect to digital media, the USTR said that "non-discriminatory
> treatment" will be provided for digital products such as music, text and
> videos.
>
> Full details of the tentative agreement, which will have to be formally
> ratified by the legislatures of the signatory countries, were not yet
> available.
>
> Five countries originally began the regional negotiation with the United
> States. Costa Rica was the only country to stand back from the deal for
> the time being.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Australia: Mobilizing to Meet the Challenge
> to Culture in FTA
>
> When the 2003 AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards were televised on
> national television this past November, actors and filmmakers
> –from Toni Collette (Japanese Story, Muriel’s Wedding) to director
> George Miller (Babe, Mad Max) to Geoffrey Rush (Shine)—took the
> opportunity to warn Australians about the negative consequences if their
> government gives up its right to have cultural policies during its
> current round of trade talks.
>
> "I think we’re heading for a disaster. I think we’ll look back on in 10
> years and say my God, how could we have been so gullible", said George
> Miller.
>
> Best actor winner David Winham told the audience that he felt "extremely
> privileged to accept this award for playing a character with an
> Australian accent, in an Australian setting, in an Australian film. And
> I do hope, I do hope Australian culture has been championed in the
> current negotiations with the U.S., so that our voices, our characters,
> and our unique stories will continue to be heard and seen on screens
> large and small for all generations to come. And the only way that
> that’s going to be achieved is if culture, culture, the thing that
> defines us as being Australians is taken off the negotiation table."
>
> The orchestration of a televised awards evening as a platform for
> getting the word out about risk to culture from the trade negotiations
> was simply the most publicly visible element of a broad-based campaign
> that was put in motion a year ago when 17 organizations representing
> artists and cultural professionals from all major sectors of Australian
> culture—books, music, theatre, film, television and new
> media—joined together to establish the Australian Coalition for
> Cultural Diversity (ACCD).
>
> The mobilization of Australia’s cultural sector to establish the ACCD
> and to undertake a campaign to defend their country’s right to maintain
> cultural policies began almost exactly a year ago at almost the precise
> moment talks were launched between Australia and the United States for a
> Free Trade Agreement.
>
> Faced with a government seemingly single-minded in its desire to secure
> greater access to the American market for its agricultural products and
> in the process prepared to contemplate concessions on culture--in
> particular, prepared to entertain "standstill" commitments whereby it
> would renounce its prerogative to introduce policies covering new media
> of the future—the member organizations of the ACCD have carried
> out an exemplary campaign to build political, media and public awareness
> and support for the position that culture should be exempted outright
> from the FTA. Their campaign has included:
>
> Regular meetings with the Australia’s trade negotiators as well as with
> officials in the country’s trade and culture ministries.
>
> Presentations and written briefs to Senate committees and other
> legislative bodies reviewing the Australian position in the negotiations
>
> Presentations and written briefs to Senate committees and other
> legislative bodies reviewing the Australian position in the negotiations
>
> Letters to and meetings with members of Parliament, opposition leaders
> and key figures in the Australian government including Trade Minister
> Mark Vaile and Prime Minister John Howard.
>
> Membership communication campaigns designed to make individual artists
> and cultural professionals aware of the issues and to mobilize them to
> raise the issue with their local politicians and media.
>
> Media communications drawing on the profile of respected artists such as
> actors Brian Brown and Geoffrey Rush and director Gillian Armstrong to
> build broad public awareness regarding what is at stake in the trade
> negotiations.
>
> Initiatives to obtain support from cultural professionals around the
> world, including declarations obtained from the international
> affiliations representing directors and screenwriters, as well as
> individual letters of support from actors, writers and broad coalitions
> of artists and cultural professionals from Canada, Chile, the United
> Kingdom and many other countries around the world.
> At the time of this writing, the talks had not yet been concluded and
> the final outcome for culture remains unclear. While the talks had been
> placed on a fast track negotiators for the two countries were unable to
> meet their objective of concluding an agreement during talks in early
> December. As a result, an additional round of talks has been scheduled
> for mid-January in Washington.
>
> As with several other bilateral negotiations involving the United
> States, the longer the talks continue the greater the likelihood they
> could get caught up in the run-up to the U.S. elections next fall and
> postponed until 2005 as a result.
>
> In the meantime, Australia’s cultural organizations remain on high
> alert, hoping they will ultimately be successful in persuading the
> Howard government of the importance of preserving Australia's capacity
> to adjust or introduce new cultural policies in the future to ensure
> there is a domestic space for Australian stories. Victory is by no means
> assured, by there is no denying that they have succeeded in placing the
> issue of cultural policies front and center in public, media and
> political discussions concerning the FTA. Only a few months into the
> campaign, a poll found that more than 70% of Australians would oppose
> the FTA if it meant that fewer Australian films and televisions programs
> were seen on their screens.
>
> For more information on the ACCD campaign (and to access communications
> materials they have prepared), consult the following websites of three
> coalition member organizations:
>
> - Australian Writers' Guild
> - The Australian Society of Authors
> - The Australian Screen Directors Association
>
> Alternatively, go to Google News Australia and once connected to this
> site do a search using the keywords Australia U.S. Free Trade Agreement.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Korea’s Screen Quota Remains in the Cross-Hairs
> of Investment Treaty Talks With U.S.
>
> Will Korea be able to resist pressure from the United States to commit
> to cutting its screen quota for domestic films? This question remains
> unanswered and while statements by President of Korea indicate there
> will be no immediate unilateral change, the Korean cultural film
> community is treating the latest debate as the most serious threat yet
> to the quota.
>
> American insistence that Korea cut and ultimately eliminate its 40%
> screen quota for domestic films has been a major stumbling block to the
> two countries concluding a Bilateral Investment Treaty—a
> negotiation that has been underway since 1998 and which Korea has sought
> to revitalize its ailing economy by laying the groundwork for a Free
> Trade Agreement with the U.S.
>
> In recent months, American negotiators and government officials have
> stepped up the pressure on Korea to seriously scale back or eliminate
> the quota outright, and public statements in late October by an advisor
> to President Moo Hyun Roh that the government was prepared to consider
> easing the quota triggered alarm within Korea’s cultural sector.
>
> On November 19, representatives of the Korean film community met with
> President Roh for three hours to urge him to retain the quota. President
> Roh reportedly expressed his
> belief that the film industry could achieve sustainable development
> without depending on the quota but stated that if the film industry
> strongly opposed changes then these would not be imposed unilaterally.
>
> With Korea’s Centre for Diversity in Moving Images front and centre, the
> major organizations representing the Korean film community have moved to
> join the broader alliance of the "Committee Preventing Korea-U.S. BIT
> and to Protect Screen Quota" and are cooperating with civil groups from
> other sectors for joint activities.
>
> The Committee has also sought to engage representatives of the Motion
> Picture Association of America in a discussion regarding the quota, and
> why it is so important to the Korean film industry, but the MPAA has
> consistently declined such overtures.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Organizations of professionals from the Moroccan cultural milieu poised
> to form a coalition for cultural diversity to demand culture be excluded
> from the United States-Morocco free trade agreement
>
> With free trade negotiations between the United States and Morocco
> nearing an end, the leading professional organizations from all cultural
> sectors were calling for an emergency meeting to be held during the week
> of December 15th.
>
> At the top of this meeting's agenda was to be the creation of a Moroccan
> Coalition for Cultural Diversity, whose main mission would be to launch
> a major campaign calling for the exclusion of culture from the terms of
> the U.S.-Morocco trade deal, so as to ensure the preservation of
> Morocco's fundamental right to maintain its existing cultural policies
> and implement new policies that may prove necessary in the future.
>
> The meeting was to include the directors of the following associations:
> the Groupement des auteurs, réalisateurs et producteurs, the
> Syndicat national des professionnels du théâtre, the Union
> des écrivains du Maroc, the Syndicat libre des musiciens
> marocains, the Syndicat national des artistes peintres et plasticiens,
> the Association marocaine des professionnels du livre, the Chambre
> marocaine des producteurs de films and the Association des
> réalisateurs de la télévision marocaine.
>
> The negotiation of a free trade agreement (FTA) between Morocco and the
> United States was launched last January and normally should have wrapped
> up with the sixth round of talks held in Washington this past December
> 1st to 8th. However, the Moroccan press report that it became clear by
> the conclusion of the sixth round that there still remained a number of
> differences of opinion between the Moroccan and U.S. negotiators,
> particularly on issues concerning agriculture and generic drugs. It
> appeared inevitable that a seventh round of negotiations will be held in
> January 2004 to settle these matters.
>
> The professional organizations within the Moroccan Coalition plan to use
> this delay to implement a two-pronged action plan: first, to hold a
> series of meetings with political officials to obtain more information
> on the status of culture in the ongoing negotiations while expressing
> the position of professionals from the milieu that culture must be
> excluded from the deal; and, second, to carry out a media awareness
> campaign.
>
> The professional organizations are hoping to meet with Communication
> Minister Nabil Benabdallah and Cultural Affairs Minister Mohammed
> Achaari, as well as with the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and
> Co-operation, Taïeb Fassi Fihri, who heads Morocco's negotiating
team.
>
> During a visit to Casablanca from December 11th to 13th, Robert Pilon,
> Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Coalition for Cultural
> Diversity, met with several of the directors of the Moroccan
> professional organizations and assured them of the full support of the
> International Liaison Committee of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity in
> their fight.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Creation in Burkina Faso of the 10th coalition
> for cultural diversity
>
> More than 20 organizations representing professionals from all of the
> cultural sectors in Burkina Faso gathered in Ouagadougo December 1st and
> 2nd to found the Burkinabe Coalition for Cultural Diversity.
>
> The Burkinabe Coalition is the 10th such coalition of professional
> organizations from the cultural milieu to be established world-wide, and
> the second in Africa. It joins Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile,
> France, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and Senegal on the International
> Liaison Committee of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity.
>
> The official founding of the Burkinabe Coalition took place during the
> "Information workshop and establishment of a national coalition for
> cultural diversity", attended by nearly 100 representatives of
> professional associations from the cultural milieu and the government
> agencies concerned. The founding members of the coalition include the
> Association des Editeurs du Faso, the Syndicat national des Artistes
> Musiciens, the Union Nationale des Cinéastes du Burkina, the
> Fédération des festivals et Manifestations Culturelles du
> Burkina Faso, the Syndicat National Autonome des Comédiens du
> Burkina, and the Association Nationale des Professionnels des Arts
> Plastiques.
>
> The professional organizations adopted the statutes of the Burkinabe
> Coalition, which stipulate among other things that the coalition is an
> association of organizations (of legal entities and not individuals)
> representing all categories of professionals (authors, artists,
> producers, promoters, broadcasters, distributors, etc.) from every
> cultural sector in Burkina Faso (music, visual and living arts,
> cinematography, audio-visual, cybernetics, literature, festivals and
> cultural events, etc.).
>
> The Coalition's statutes also set out the following international
> objectives: "To affirm the right of States to take the necessary
> measures to safeguard and promote their culture; to refuse that cultural
> products be treated as mere commodities; to mobilize support for the
> adoption of the International Convention on Cultural Diversity by
> UNESCO; (…) to work to ensure that bilateral and multilateral cultural
> co-operation agreements take into account the specific needs of
> developing countries, particularly as concerns strengthening human,
> technical and financial capacity."
>
> The organizations present at the workshop also elected the members of
> the Coalition's Executive Committee. Rasmané Ouédraogo,
> head of the Syndicat National Autonome des comédiens du Burkina,
> was elected Chairman of the new Executive. A locally- and
> internationally-recognized film actor, he starred in Burkinabe filmmaker
> Idrissa Ouédraogo's most recent film, La Colère des dieux
> (2003), and served as a member of the jury of the Festival International
> du Film francophone de Namur (Belgium) this past October.
>
> The opening ceremony of this workshop was presided by Burkina Faso's
> Minister of Culture, Arts and Tourism, Mr. Mahamoudou Ouédraogo.
> In his speech, Minister Ouédraogo affirmed that "every State has
> the right and the duty to implement the cultural policy of its choice,
> without external constraints and in the full respect of human rights and
> freedom of expression." (our translation) He noted his active
> involvement in the International Network on Cultural Policy (a network
> that brings together more than 50 ministers of culture from around the
> world) and his country's support of the International Convention on
> Cultural Diversity in the process of being developed at UNESCO.
>
> Robert Pilon, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Coalition for
> Cultural Diversity, was invited as a representative of the International
> Liaison Committee of coalitions to deliver a talk on "Cultural
> Diversity: battlegrounds, stakes and actions to be taken". He informed
> the participants of the latest developments concerning the draft
> convention at UNESCO and ongoing trade negotiations, and stressed the
> inherent danger of allowing culture to be included in bilateral trade
> agreements. Robert Pilon was also able to meet with the minister of
> Culture, Mahamoudou Ouédraogo.
>
> Burkina Faso, a key West-African country with more than 12 million
> inhabitants, will play host to the next Summit of Heads of State and of
> Government of La Francophonie from November 23-27, 2004.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Towards the Convention on Cultural Diversity:
> UNESCO Director General Convenes First Meeting of Experts Committee
>
> In the wake of the UNESCO General Conference decision mandating him to
> develop a convention on diversity of cultural content and artistic
> expression, Director General Koïchiro Matsuura has initiated this
> process by appointing an experts committee that began its work in Paris
> with a four-day meeting starting December 17.
>
> The names of the experts have not been formally announced but the
> committee is believed to number 15 experts from around the world, and
> according to the Montreal daily newspaper
> Le Devoir the committee includes professor Ivan Bernier, a Quebec City
> (Canada)-based expert in international law who has been one of the
> leading thinkers in articulating possible legal frameworks for an
> eventual convention.
>
> In opening the experts meeting, Director General Matsuura stated that
> their initial work will concentrate on defining the aims and scope of
> the international convention, as well as exploring its potential
> relationship to other international instruments, including the WTO’s
> General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Agreement on
> Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), as well
> as mechanisms for cooperation and international assistance.
>
> In a press release regarding the meeting, Matsuura is quoted as saying
> that the next phase, once authorized by UNESCO’s Executive Board, would
> be "an inter-governmental discussion where all member states would be
> invited to bring their views and participate in the actual drafting of
> the preliminary text of the convention."
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Culture Ministers Network Continues Work In Support
> of Convention on Cultural Diversity with December Meeting in Paris
>
> Officials representing 15 member countries of the International Network
> on Cultural Policy (INCP)gathered December 11-12 in Paris to take part
> in an informal meeting of the INCP's Working Group on Cultural Diversity
> and Globalization.
>
> The goal of the meeting was to consider appropriate activities for the
> year ahead consistent with the mandate set out by the culture ministers
> during their annual meeting in Opatija, Croatia, this past
> October--notably as set out in the statement issued by the ministers at
> the conclusion of the meeting.
>
> Characterized as a brainstorming session, the Paris meeting set the
> stage for a more formal meeting set for late January 2004 and hosted in
> Switzerland by the Swiss Ministry of Culture to finalize the 2004 work
> plan leading up to the 7th Annual Ministerial Meeting, to be hosted by
> China next fall.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> La Francophonie Secretary General Abdou Diouf meets
> with delegation of representatives
> of coalitions for cultural diversity
>
> A delegation of the International Liaison Committee of Coalitions for
> Cultural Diversity consisting of eight representatives of the French,
> Canadian and Senegalese coalitions met with the Secretary General of the
> Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), Abdou Diouf, at
> the organization's headquarters in Paris on November 26, 2003.
>
> The purpose of the meeting, which proved to be highly fruitful, was to
> discuss the evolution of the culture/international trade issue in the
> wake of last October's decision by the UNESCO General Conference to
> proceed with the development of an international convention on cultural
> diversity.
>
> The OIF, with its 56 French-speaking member nations, has played a
> decisive role in the outstanding progress made in recent years in the
> cultural diversity file. In this regard, it is particularly important to
> note that the final declarations of the last two summits of Francophonie
> heads of state and of government, the first held in Moncton, Canada, in
> September 1999 and the subsequent one in Beirut, Lebanon, in October
> 2002, strongly endorsed the creation of a new binding international
> instrument on cultural diversity and issued an urgent call to all member
> states to refrain from making any liberalization commitments on culture
> within the framework of international trade negotiations. The next
> Francophonie Summit will be held in Burkina Faso, in Africa, from
> November 23 to 27, 2004.
>
> Mr. Diouf, who as served as President of Senegal from 1981 to 2000, took
> over as Secretary General of the OIF in 2002. Through his many speeches
> to international forums and his meetings with the political officials of
> OIF member states, Mr. Diouf was instrumental in persuading a large
> number of countries last October to support the resolution to involve
> UNESCO in the development of the convention on cultural diversity.
>
> During his meeting with the Liaison Committee representatives, the
> Secretary General was apprised of the three main priorities they intend
> to pursue between now and the next UNESCO General Conference in fall
> 2005: to promote to UNESCO the position of organizations representing
> professionals from the cultural milieu on the content of the future
> convention; to actively work to rally the support, through every
> relevant forum, of the two-thirds majority of UNESCO member states
> needed to adopt the convention; and, finally, to systematically pursue
> efforts to persuade countries engaged in trade negotiations to refrain
> from making any liberalization commitments on culture.
>
> For his part, Secretary General Diouf expressed his pleasure at the fact
> that 10 coalitions for cultural diversity have already been created and
> urged the Liaison Committee representatives to encourage the creation of
> similar coalitions in the greatest possible number of countries. The
> Secretary General also implored the coalitions to be even more vigorous
> in their efforts to promote the position of professionals from the
> cultural milieu with respect to the content of the convention. Lastly,
> he urged them to be especially vigilant regarding liberalization
> commitments on culture in ongoing and upcoming trade negotiations.
>
> France's Comité de Vigilance pour la diversité culturelle
> was represented by Olivier Carmet, Executive Director of the SACD,
> Gilles Katz of the French producers' union, Jean-Pierre Moreux of
> France's actors' union, Catherine Blache of the national publishers'
> union, and Débora Abramowicz, the SADC's Director of
> International Affairs; Canada's Coalition for Cultural Diversity was
> represented by Pierre Curzi, President of l’Union des Artistes and the
> coalition's Co-Chair, and Robert Pilon, Executive Vice-President of the
> Coalition; the Senegalese Coalition for Cultural Diversity was
> represented by its Secretary General, Ndiar Mboup of Senegal's
> Association des métiers de la musique.
>
> For the OIF, Secretary General Abdou Diouf was accompanied by Roger
> Dehaybe, Chief Executive of the Intergovernmental Agency of La
> Francophonie (the main operating agency of the OIF), Catherine Tasca,
> Special State Advisor, as well as Bernard Petterson, Director of Culture
> and Heritage, Patrice Burel, Special Advisor and Christopher Malone,
> Co-operation Advisor in the office of Secretary General Diouf.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Coalition Representatives Take Part in Guadalajara
> Conference on Cultural Diversity
>
> Representatives of coalitions for cultural diversity in Argentina,
> Chile, Mexico and Canada featured prominently in a two-day conference on
> cultural diversity held November 30-December 1 in Guadalajara, Mexico,
> as part of that city’s International Book Fair, the largest in Latin
> America.
>
> The conference was hosted by the book fair and the government of Quebec
> (Quebec was the featured guest at this year’s book fair).
>
> Quebec’s Minister of Culture and Communications, Line Beauchamp, spoke
> at the conference’s closing ceremonies and used the occasion to
> emphasize that it was important "to ask countries engaged in trade
> negotiations to be vigilant and preserve their capacity to intervene in
> support of culture, while we await the adoption of a convention by
> UNESCO by 2005." (our translation)
>
> Coalition representatives taking part in panel discussions on the
> cultural diversity campaign and the role of cultural professional
> organizations in the debate included Gabriel Larrea Richerand of Mexico,
> Julio Raffo of Argentina, Juan Carlos Saez Contreras of Chile, and
> Quebec publisher Gilles Pellerin and Pierre Curzi, co-chair of the
> Coalition for Cultural Diversity (Canada).
>
> In their statements, the coalition representatives emphasized the
> following points:
>
> The importance of securing a strong international convention on cultural
> diversity through UNESCO that is a true convention having a proper
> articulation with other existing international agreements, such as WTO
> trade agreements.
>
> The need for organizations representing artists and all cultural
> professionals to be fully consulted in the process of developing the
treaty.
>
> The critical importance that countries refrain from making commitments
> on culture in trade agreements while the convention is being developed.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Brazilian Cinema Sector Turns Its Attention
> to the Cultural Diversity Movement;
> Supports Convention on Cultural Diversity at UNESCO
>
> Brazil’s role in the cultural diversity debate was one of the key themes
> of the Fifth Congress of Brazilian Cinema, held in Fortaleza on the
> northern coast of Brazil November30 - December 3.
>
> The Congress, which brings together more than 40 professional
> organizations from Brazil’s cinema industry, is held every two years and
> this year brought together approximately 100 industry professionals
> along with key industry officials and representatives from the country’s
> culture ministry.
>
> On December 1, the Congress held a seminar focused on the process now
> underway to develop a convention on cultural diversity at UNESCO, the
> ongoing pressures on the audiovisual sector arising from trade
> negotiations, and the implications for Brazilian cinema.
> Edgard Telles Ribeiro, director of the ministry of external relations’s
> culture directorate, and Leopoldo Nunes, chief of staff for culture
> minister Gilberto Gil, took part in the panel on behalf of the Brazilian
> government. They were joined by Jom Tom Azulay, superintendent of
> strategic planning with the Brazilian state film agency Ancine, Marcio
> Guimaraes of France’s consulate, and independent producer Debora Peters,
> all members of the CBC’s working group on cultural diversity. Jim McKee
> of the Canadian Coalition also took part, speaking on behalf of the
> International Liaison Committee of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity.
>
> Brazil’s Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil also spoke during the closing
> ceremonies of the Congress, and reiterated his strong support for the
> cultural diversity movement.
>
> Led by Gil, Brazil was a strong supporter of the convention for cultural
> diversity during the debate on this question during last October’s
> UNESCO General Conference, and by virtue of its position as a leader
> within both South America and the developing world can be expected to
> play a key role in the coming debate.
>
> This is all the more the case given that Brazil is a major producer of
> audiovisual works—notably of television but recently its cinema
> has been in the ascendancy as well.
>
> In its closing declaration, the CBC emphasized the importance of the
> question in the following terms:
>
> "Considering the necessity of Brasil to align definitively with the
> policy supported by the European Union, the iberoamerican countries and
> others such as Canada, in regards to the defense of Cultural Diversity
> in multilateral commerce forums such as the WTO and the negotiations
> underway for the FTAA, the Fifth Congress of Brazilian Cinema reafirms
> the necessity of actions of the Ministry of Culture together with the
> Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order for Brazil to consolidate its
> position of abstention of market access offers, as well as of demands
> for opening up of other markets, until the International Treaty on
> Cultural Diversity at UNESCO is concluded, as those countries are
> requesting."
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Franco-German roundtable on cultural diversity
> Sarrebruck, November 20 and 21, 2003
>
> On the 40th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty celebrating
> French and German co-operation, the governments of the two countries
> have decided to work in close conjunction on the development of an
> international convention on cultural diversity within UNESCO. With a
> goal to advancing the joint reflection process, promoting Franco-German
> positions and bringing political representatives and members of the
> civil society in both countries together, the French and German
> governments co-organized a roundtable on cultural diversity on November
> 20 and 21, 2003, in Sarrebruck. The event, attended by Christina Weiss,
> the German Minister of State for Culture and the Media, and Jean-Jacques
> Aillagon, French Minister of Culture and Communications, featured three
> thematic workshops:
>
> - Cultural diversity and cultural heritage, chaired by Mounir
> Bouchenaki, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture;
> - Cultural diversity and European integration, chaired by Nele Hertling,
> President of the Franco-German High Council for Cultural Affairs;
> - Cultural diversity and mastering globalization, chaired by Jean
> Musitelli, State Advisor and former permanent delegate of France to
UNESCO.
>
> In the presence of the 100 or so participants, rich and fruitful
> discussion extolled Franco-German co-operation in this area.
> Hans-Heinrich Wrede, Germany's permanent delegate to UNESCO and the new
> Chairman of the organization's Executive Board, assured both governments
> that he will closely monitor the development of the convention on
> cultural diversity to ensure that it is ready for adoption by the
> General Conference in 2005.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The Dakar International Book Fair
> Unfolds Under the Theme of Cultural Diversity
> - Representatives of the Senegalese,
> Chilean and Canadian Coalitions Take Part
>
> The 9th Foire internationale du livre et du matériel didactique
> de Dakar (FILDAK) took place December 4th to 9th under the theme of
> "Literature of Nations and Cultural Diversity".
>
> The official opening of FILDAK, one of Africa's largest book fairs, was
> presided by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade. Government ministers,
> among them Senegal's Minister of Foreign Affairs Cheik Tijane Gadio and
> Culture Minister Safiatou Ndiaye Diop, chaired a number of the event's
> forums and round tables.
>
> At the invitation of event organizers, three representatives of national
> coalitions for cultural diversity, including Sawalo Cissé,
> President of the Senegal Coalition, Paulo Slachevsky, President of the
> Chilean Association of Independent Publishers and of the Chilean
> Coalition, and Robert Pilon, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian
> Coalition, took part in an international round table on December 5th.
>
> Two other representatives of the Senegalese Coalition's member
> associations, Alioune Badara Bèye, President of the Association
> des Ecrivains sénégalais, and Madieyna Ndiaye, President
> of The Association sénégalaise des Editeurs, participated
> in another round-table discussion on "Publishing, co-publishing and
> distribution".
>
> During his stay in Dakar, Robert Pilon, representing the International
> Liaison Committee of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity, also met with,
> among others, Culture Minister Safiatou Ndiaye Diop, the Minister's
> Technical Advisor Moustapha Tambadou, Abdou Aziz Dieng, President of the
> Association des Métiers de la Musique du Sénégal,
> Clarence Delgado of the organization Cinéastes
> Sénégalais associés, and Ndiawar Mboup, Secretary
> General of Senegal's National Coalition for Cultural Diversity, to
> discuss the evolution of the cultural diversity file.
> _______________________________________________
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