Highlights:
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.
Coalition Currents is published by the Secretariat for the International Liaison Committee of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (ILC). Member Coalitions:
Argentina,
Australia, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, France, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand,
Senegal.
154 Laurier Ave. West, Suite 240
Montreal, QUE H2T 2N7
T. (514) 277-2666
F. (514) 277-9994
www.comitedevigilance.org
e-mail:
Editor:
Jim McKee
Contributors in this issue: Robert Pilon,
Mélanie
Marron, Sylvie Riendeau,
Cécile Despringre, Bruno
Bettati
Interested in bringing organizations representing cultural professionals in your country together in a coalition for cultural diversity?
For
assistance, contact the Secretariat of the International Liaison Committee
of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity:
mckee@cdc-ccd.org.