CULTURE: UNESCO Unified over Diversity

By Julio Godoy Reprint | | Print |

Julio Godoy

PARIS, Oct 23 2003 (IPS) - UNESCO director-general Koïchiro Matsuura will go ahead with preparing a binding convention to defend cultural diversity despite initial U.S. opposition.

This mandatory set of rules would give all countries the right to set policy to preserve and promote national production of cultural goods such as films, music recordings, and books, the international group agreed at a conference.

Matsuura has two years to prepare a draft. He will do so after consulting international organisations ruling on international trade such as the World Trade Organisation, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

A compulsory convention to protect cultural diversity is a long cherished project at UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation). UNESCO members had unanimously adopted a non-binding resolution over this in 2001.

That declaration described cultural diversity as a "common heritage of humanity" and considered its safeguarding a concrete and ethical imperative, inseparable from respect for human dignity.

The convention became controversial after the United States rejoined UNESCO this year and announced at first that it would reject a binding convention. The United States returned to UNESCO last month after quitting the organisation in 1984.

Members agreed to draft a binding convention at the 32nd UNESCO conference held in Paris Sep. 29 to Oct. 17. This conference brings members together every two years. With the return of the United States and East Timor joining, UNESCO now has 190 members.

A record 3,580 delegates, including five heads of state and close to 300 ministers attended the conference in Paris.

A mandatory convention to preserve cultural diversity was widely supported at the discussions.

"The world needs a convention to give every state the right to adopt or maintain the necessary public policies to preserve and develop its cultural and linguistic patrimony," French President Chirac said in a speech ahead of the conference. "Such a convention would support the uniqueness of cultural creation."

Chirac rejected the U.S. argument that a binding convention would restrain free circulation of cultural goods. "Freedom flourishes within laws and rules, and gets strangled in anarchy," he said.

Several diplomats privately criticised U.S. opposition to the convention.. "In the eyes of the U.S. government, culture is just another merchandise, and therefore there cannot be a cultural policy," a Latin American diplomat told IPS earlier.

Another diplomat said: "It’s obvious that the big film studios in Hollywood are behind this U.S. attitude."

Delegates, including the U.S. delegates, finally approved a resolution that "cultural diversity, as regards the protection of the diversity of cultural contents and artistic expressions shall be the subject of an international convention."

The resolution calls on the director-general to submit a first draft convention to the next general conference in 2005.

At this session delegates adopted several conventions on protection of cultural heritage, on human genetic data, and against doping in sport.

UNESCO adopted the International Convention on the Preservation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage as a complement to the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which concerns monuments and natural sites.

This new convention aims to preserve oral traditions and expressions, including languages as vehicles of cultural heritage, as well as the performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe, and traditional craftsmanship.

The convention needs to be approved by at least 30 states to take effect.. It provides for the drawing up of national inventories of cultural property, and the establishment of an Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The convention proposes in addition the creation of two lists: a Representative List of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity and a List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

The first list has been drawn up partially after the last conference listed 19 Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

These include the Garifuna language, dance and music practised by communities of African origin in Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua, the Oruro carnival in Bolivia, the Chinese Kunqu opera, Georgian polyphonic singing, the Indian Kutiyattam Sanskrit theatre, the Japanese Nogaku theatre, and the Sicilian opera puppet theatre.

The conference also adopted a Declaration Concerning the Intentional Destruction of Cultural Heritage.

This declaration recalls "the tragic destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan" and expresses "serious concern about the growing number of acts of intentional destruction of cultural heritage."

The declaration says countries should "take all appropriate measures to prevent, avoid, stop and suppress acts of intentional destruction of cultural heritage, wherever such heritage is located."

The International Declaration on Human Genetic Data approved at the conference lays down ethical principles that should govern collection, processing, storage and use of genetic data. These principles include confidentiality and free consent.

"The privacy of an individual participating in a study using human genetic data, proteomic data or biological samples should be protected and the data should be treated as confidential," the declaration says.

UNESCO is also preparing to take on doping in sport. The conference approved a proposal made by a round table of ministers and senior officials in Paris in January this year to prepare an international convention against doping in sport.