Highlights:
Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2005
Canada Continues Push for Focused UNESCO Convention
Canada continued to play a leading role arguing for a convention with clearly focused on reaffirming the sovereign right of countries to have cultural policies during UNESCO’s second intergovernmental negotiations session to negotiate the proposed convention on the protection of the diversity of cultural contents and artistic expressions, held January 31 to February 11 in Paris .
Canada ’s statements during the course of the negotiations drew heavily on the written comments it filed with UNESCO in mid-November of last year. As such, they called for language in Articles 5 and 6 that clearly affirmed the right of countries to have cultural policies. And they emphasized the importance of clearly asserting this right in general terms, avoiding language that would risk constraining this right solely to situations where cultural diversity was deemed to be vulnerable or at risk.
Canada also reiterated the importance of developing a convention whose scope clearly remained focused on protecting the diversity of cultural contents and artistic expressions—that is, books, films, television, music, live performance, visual arts and new media.
Encouragingly, there was significant progress in the February negotiations to concentrate the discussion along these lines, in effect bringing the talks back in line with the mandate laid out in the resolution adopted at the October 2003 General Conference that set the convention process in motion.
The Canadian delegation was headed by Jacques Paquette, Assistant Deputy Minister for International and Intergovernmental Relations of Canadian Heritage, who spoke on behalf of Canada during the plenary discussions.
Canada ’s statements clearly positioned it in the camp of a leader group of countries seeking a true convention. This group includes the European Union, China , Brazil and the vast majority of countries from Latin America, the Caribbean , and Africa .
The vision of the convention advocated by this group of countries contrasts sharply with that put forth by a much smaller, but hardly negligible, group of countries led by the United States , whose positions were consistently echoed by Australia . To varying degrees, this group also included Japan, Mexico, Ecuador, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and New Zealand—all of whom made proposals that, if accepted would result in a broad, vague and essentially declarative document with no real legal weight.
But while Canada worked in close collaboration with the EU, the alliance was not monolithic.
Specifically, on the question of the UNESCO convention’s relationship to other international instruments, the European Union took the lead on its own in proposing an alternative approach to the now well-known options A and B for Article 19.
The EU circulated its new proposal informally late in the morning of February 11, the closing day of the second round of negotiations.
The EU proposal will not be considered formally until the third intergovernmental negotiations session set to run from May 23 to June 4. In the interim, an in-depth assessment of the proposed wording is required. But at first glance it appears to both an imaginative and promising departure point for working to ensure that the UNESCO convention is clearly placed on the same footing as trade agreements, and for affirming the importance keeping the specificity, or distinctive character, of cultural goods and services, clearly in mind when interpreting provisions of other international agreements that could have an impact on cultural diversity.
By contrast, Canada did not move beyond the basic position it set out in its November written comments. These essentially state that the concepts raised in Articles 13 and 19 overlap and should therefore be addressed together. The relationship between the UNESCO convention and other international instruments is addressed only generally:
” A strong and effective Convention will have its rightful place within the international legal system. It should be mutually supportive and non-hierarchical with other international agreements. It can and must achieve its important objectives while being consistent with the rights and obligations of States under existing international agreements.”
The CCD has for some months—notably in its December 6 appearance before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage--been urging the government to take a clear position on Article 19 in favour of language that would provide some latitude for countries to re-examine prior commitments in other international instruments that might seriously constrain their capability to apply measures to ensure genuine cultural diversity in their country.
With the European proposal now on the table, the negotiations have now clearly reached a stage where Canada will have to take a position on specific wording, and show its colours on this question during the May negotiations.
The CCD has also called on the Canadian government to push for stronger language with respect to Article 13, in order to ensure that States Parties signing onto the UNESCO convention clearly commit to being coherent in their actions by formally undertaking to uphold its objectives and principles and consistently declining to make commitments in other international negotiations—notably for trade agreements—that would run contrary to the spirit of the convention.
Heading into the May negotiations, a decision by Canada also looms on the question of what type of dispute settlement mechanism should be built into the UNESCO Convention. Article 24, which addresses this issue, was not discussed in the February negotiations but will be on the table for the third negotiations session that starts May 23.
On Article 24, the CCD has advocated that Canada support including in the convention a truly effective dispute settlement mechanism that would ensure that the convention becomes the authoritative reference on questions relating to cultural policies.
Between now and May 23, these and other key elements of the convention will be the subject of intensive discussions involving not only senior officials but also ministers from not just Canadian Heritage, but also Justice, Foreign Affairs, International Trade and quite likely other departments as well. This debate may well culminate in a discussion around the cabinet table to establish Canada ’s final position.
The provinces will also be heard in these discussions as well. And Quebec will not be alone, by any means. Ontario , for one, has been voicing an increasingly assertive desire to be directly involved in the negotiations process.
In light of this, the CCD’s activities in the coming months will include a heavy investment of energy in domestic advocacy activities. Governments—both at the federal and provincial levels—must hear clearly how important an effective convention is to Canada ’s cultural sector.
Quebec’s Minister Beauchamp Makes Case for UNESCO Convention in London, Paris
Quebec Minister of Culture and Communications Line Beauchamp used recent missions to London and Paris as opportunities to express the importance that Quebec attaches to securing a strong UNESCO convention on the protection of the diversity of cultural contents and artistic expressions.
On February 7, Minister Beauchamp, accompanied by senior officials from her office and the ministry, hosted a dinner organized by Quebec’s Agent General in London, George MacLaren, and attended by senior officials from the United Kingdom’s Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs and International Trade, as well as leaders of key British organizations from the film, television, live performance and music sectors.
The CCD’s Director of External Relations, Jim McKee, attended the dinner after holding a series of meetings earlier in the day with U.K. cultural organizations, including the British Screen Advisory Council, British Equity, the Directors Guild of Great Britain, and the Directors and Producers Rights Society.
Minister Beauchamp then travelled to Paris and on the day of the closing of UNESCO’s second intergovernmental negotiations session hosted a dinner organized by Quebec ’s Agent General in Paris, Clément Duhaime. In addition to Canada ’s Ambassador to UNESCO, Yvon Charbonneau, ambassadors from China , Russia , and Lebanon attended, as well as a representative of the permanent delegation of St. Lucia .
The CCD’s Executive Vice President, Robert Pilon, was present at the dinner and took part in the informal roundtable discussion that followed concerning the current state of play in the negotiations to secure an effective convention through the UNESCO process.
The View from Geneva : CCD Reps Meet Canada ’s Ambassador to the WTO
On February 10, CCD Executive Vice President Robert Pilon and Director of External Relations Jim McKee travelled to Geneva to meet with Canada ’s Ambassador to the World Trade Organization, Don Stephenson.
Ambassador Stephenson provided a briefing on the current state of the Doha Round of negotiations, and also reported on the perspectives expressed by other national delegations with respect to the UNESCO convention during the half-day discussion on the issue organized by the WTO last November.
Following the briefing with Ambassador Stephenson, Pilon and McKee were accompanied by David Usher, First Secretary with the Canadian delegation and its services negotiator, for a series of meetings. These included a briefing with Hamed Mamdouh, the WTO’s Director of Services, and meetings with officials from the delegations of the European Union and Brazilian delegations involved in the services negotiations.
The day concluded with a meeting with officials from UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which as part of its mandate assists developing nations in preparing their negotiating positions for WTO and other trade negotiations.
At least three themes were evident in the day’s discussions. First, the UNESCO negotiations are attracting increasing attention from both the WTO and the national delegations at Geneva —in fact, many UNESCO delegations are now in regular contact with their WTO counterparts to discuss their country’s response to specific proposals in the UNESCO negotiations. Second, the Doha Round of services negotiations is entering a critical phase, and the WTO is actively working to attract the political engagement they consider necessary to ensure these talks move ahead. And finally, any discussion in Geneva concerning culture almost immediately progresses to a trade-focused negotiation in which it is placed in opposition to other sectors—financial services, agriculture, education—in other words, the pressure to liberalize, and to trade off culture against gains in other sectors, is implacable.
Ontario Government, CCD Plan UNESCO Convention Event
On February 21, CCD Vice-President Pamela Brand and Director of External Relations Jim McKee met with Ontario ’s Deputy Minister of Culture Terry Smith, Assistant Deputy Minister Marjorie Mercer, and Donna Ratchford, Manager, Arts and Cultural Industries Branch to begin planning a public event focusing on what Ontario has at stake in the campaign to secure the convention at UNESCO.
The event will be staged jointly by Ontario and the CCD and will be held in Toronto later this spring. It will open with an address by Minister of Culture Madeleine Meilleur, and will include a roundtable discussion featuring leading experts on the convention, officials from the Canadian government directly involved in the UNESCO negotiations, and leading artists and producers with a clear stake in the outcome of this process.
Ontario-based members of the CCD’s member organizations will be invited to attend the session. A formal announcement containing a detailed description of the event will be sent out this month.
Update is published by
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Editor: Jim McKee
Contributors: Robert Pilon,
Mélanie Marron, Geneviève Grimard, Steve Moore
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