Highlights:
Vol. 3, No. 6, December 2005
With Canada First To Ratify UNESCO Convention, CCD Plunges Immediately Into International Ratification Campaign
Within weeks of the successful adoption vote on the Convention during UNESCO’s 33rd General Conference, the leadership of the Canadian Coalition for Cultural Diversity was back on the road working to build support for fast-track ratification of the Convention. By mid-December, CCD representatives had travelled to nine countries, working with local coalitions to launch their ratification campaigns and meeting with leaders of key cultural organizations to spark the formation of new coalitions where these do not yet exist.
CCD executive vice-president Robert Pilon was already overseas when the good news came that Canada would be announcing its own ratification on November 23. But he was able to highlight Canada’s action during a three-week mission in six countries that began in Barcelona with a two-day symposium on cultural diversity and the UNESCO Convention attended by representatives of coalitions, cultural organizations as well as artists, independent producers and academics from the Mediterranean rim, and which ended in December in Recife, Brazil, at the 6th Brazilian Cinema Congress.
In between, Pilon first travelled to three Maghrebian countries for meetings with cultural organizations, political leaders, government officials and media : in Morocco, where he was invited to make a presentation on the Convention process at a conference organized by the Moroccan coalition, as well as in Tunisia and Algeria, where new coalitions are in the process of being established; he then went on to Venezuela, where he was on hand for a meeting held to announce the creation of the 32nd Coalition for Cultural Diversity.
Meanwhile, CCD co-chair Pierre Curzi travelled to London to be the keynote speaker for the 2nd United Kingdom Independent Film Parliament on November 30th. On December 5, he was in Lyon , France , for les Entretiens Jacques-Cartier, where he took part in a panel discussion that addressed the ratification challenge as well as the broader issue of ensuring the Convention takes on genuine legal and political weight in the years ahead.
On November 21, CCD director of external relations Jim McKee was in Dakar , Senegal , as part of the delegation of the International Liaison Committee of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity appearing before the eighth ministerial meeting of the International Network on Cultural Policy, the informal international network of culture ministers. He also attended the Sixth International Meeting of the International Network for Cultural Diversity (INCD), held immediately prior to the INCP ministers gathering.
Quebec Ministers Beauchamp, Gagnon-Tremblay Stress Ratification Challenge in Lyon , Madagascar Meetings
Quebec Minister of Culture and Communications Line Beauchamp was in Lyon , France , on December 5 for the 18th Entretiens Jacques Cartier to officially open and close a day-long symposium on the campaign for cultural diversity.
The symposium explored the cultural diversity issue from three major angles: as a response to globalization; in terms of North-South challenges; and prospects for the future in the wake of UNESCO’s adoption of the Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions.
Minister Beauchamp also released a study on prospects for action related to Convention implementation that the Quebec government had commissioned from Ivan Bernier, professor emeritus at the Université Laval Faculty of Law in Quebec City, and one of the independent experts appointed in December 2003 by the UNESCO Director-General to develop the preliminary draft of the Convention, in conjunction with Hélène Ruiz-Fabri, a professor at Université Paris I-Panthéon Sorbonne. The paper proposes a timetable of work in relation to the next UNESCO General Conference, the type of work that could be undertaken by the Conference of Parties, and specific issues that could be dealt with by the Intergovernmental Committee.
The Bernier collaboration with Ruiz-Fabri (available only in French) expands on an initial text published by Bernier in November, and which is available in French, English and Spanish. The final version of the Bernier/Ruiz-Fabri paper is also scheduled to be available in all three languages early in 2006. The next issue of Coalition Update will contain an interview with Ivan Bernier in which he discusses some of the ratification and implementation challenges identified in these texts.
In her concluding remarks, Minister Beauchamp reviewed the progress to date in building international support for the Convention on cultural diversity, but also highlighted the work ahead. “With this symposium, which brought together many of the players who had key roles in the adoption of the UNESCO Convention, we have taken one step further in our efforts to mobilize for the next steps, i.e., ratification and active implementation of the Convention by the greatest possible number of states.”
The session was attended by more than 250 participants and featured speakers and participants from the academic and cultural communities in Quebec as well as France and other Francophonie countries. Abdou Diouf, the secretary general of the International Organization of La Francophonie, professors Bernier and Ruiz-Fabri, Katerina Stenou, director of the department of cultural policies and intercultural dialogue, former French ambassador to UNESCO and now chargé de mission for cultural diversity Jean Musitelli, Pierre Curzi, co-Chair of the Canadian Coalition for Cultural Diversity, and Pascal Rogard, President of the French Coalition, were among the featured speakers.
Minister Gagnon-Tremblay: Francophonie Must Remain a Leader on Cultural Diversity
In Antananarivo, Madagascar, two weeks earlier, at the 21st ministerial conference of la Francophonie on November 23, Monique Gagnon-Tremblay, Quebec Minister of International Relations and Minister responsible for la Francophonie emphasized the important role that la Francophonie had played in building international support for the Convention, and stressed the importance of continuing this work.
“La Francophonie still has a role to play. It must immediately support ratification of the Convention, and over and above this, bring to bear technical support to its member states to implement cultural policies to safeguard their cultural heritage, the production and circulation of their creators at home and elsewhere in the world, as it committed to do in Ouagadougou [ in Burkina Faso, host country of the 2004 Francophonie Summit] in its resolution on aid to less developed countries in the area of cultural diversity.” (CCD translation)
“For this reason, I invite the members attending this conference to make a solemn commitment in support of ratification of the Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions by their state or government.”
CCD Gives Presentation on UNESCO Convention
to FCCF National Council
On December 6, Jim McKee was in Halifax to give a presentation before the national council of the Fédération Culturelle Canadienne-Française, a member organization of the CCD.
The 90-minute presentation and Q&A session that followed reviewed events leading up to the landslide vote in support of the UNESCO Convention during the General Conference in October and the work the CCD had done through this period, and detailed the work now underway to launch a fast-track ratification campaign.
The CCD Secretariat welcomes the opportunity for such exchanges with member organizations of the Coalition . Any organization wishing to arrange a presentation for an AGM or national council/board meeting in the next six months is invited to contact the CCD with details of the request.
Update is published by
Canada's Coalition for Cultural Diversity.
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Editor: Jim McKee
Contributors: Robert Pilon,
Mélanie Marron, Marisol Paquin
Coalition Update is published with the financial assistance of
