By Dr. JACOB L SIMET
October 20, 2007 will mark the second anniversary of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultures.
On this day in 2005, the UNESCO General Conference, in its 33rd Session, adopted the Convention.
But it was not until the March 18 this year that the Convention entered into force.
For those who attended the UNESCO General Conference in that year and were in the UNESCO complex in Paris on October 20, this was a day to remember as it was filled with anguish and drama.
While the work on the Convention had gone through a number of Committees over the space of two years, the final debate was during the Cultural Sector debates during the 33rd General Conference.
This debate was listed to take place towards the end of the debates. However on arrival in Paris, many delegations were disturbed to find that there were attempts to move this item to earlier in the program. It was suspected that those delegations which opposed the Convention wanted to debate this issue before other delegations had arrived. There was very strong protest over this change so the item was put back to its original place in the program. The debate was heated, arduous and protracted.
While a large number of countries supported the Convention, disagreement was expressed mainly by the United States, Israel and that group of countries which has come to be dubbed in some international fora as JAZCAN (Japan, New Zealand, Australia and Canada). Like debates on similar issues in other international fora such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), there was a clear polarization between developed and developing countries.
After a week of debate, it was time for the adoption of the Convention, at 10am on October 20.
However when delegations arrived at the complex at 9:00 am, the doors we closed and security guards posted at the door advised that the room was full and all the seats were taken. Delegations demanded to know who had taken their seats as normally in these meetings each country delegation is allocated two seats.
Some were very vocal while others began to pound on the heavy wooden doors which were heavily bolted. Finally a group of people organized and went to see the Director General of UNESCO about the matter. There was relief when we were adviced that the meeting was deferred to 1:00 pm to be held in a larger room.
This final day of debate continued to be heated and protracted, as it had been for the last week. In the UN system, decisions are supposed to be reached by consensus and voting was only taken as a last resort. On this day the opponents refused to relent their position and in the end forced a vote. The vote was taken and the debates culminated in a sweet sense of achievement at about 7:00 pm on a northern autumn evening when148 countries stood up to applaud the adoption of this new convention in standing ovation, four countries abstained and only the United States and Israel remained seated as they were the only counties that opposed the Convention.
The Convention arose out of concerns of many member states of UNESCO over the effects globalization was having on the cultures of the world. These concerns were encapsulated in a resolution being adopted during the 32nd UNESCO General Assembly in 2003, to have an instrument to protect and promote the cultural diversity of the world against the dominating effects by some cultures through the process of globalization. These sentiments are encapsulated in the preambular statement of the Convention, which says; "That while the processes of globalization which have been facilitated by the rapid development of information and communications technologies, afford unprecedented conditions for enhanced interaction between cultures, they also represent a challenge for cultural diversity, namely in view of risks of imbalances between rich and poor countries".
On the whole the concern was related to the increasing homogenization of culture throughout the world by those cultures which had the means and control over mass communication technologies. In this situation some cultures were becoming more and more dominant around the globe at the expense of others.
Given this threat, a number of issues were at stake. One of these is that; "cultural diversity creates a rich and varied world, which increases the range of choices and nurtures human capacities and values, and therefore is a mainspring for sustainable development for communities, peoples and nations". Also at risk was "the importance of the vitality of cultures, including for persons belonging to minorities and indigenous peoples, as manifested in their freedom to create, disseminate and distribute their traditional cultural expressions and to have access thereto, so as to benefit them for their own development". At the same time it was recognized that this dominance threatened "the importance of traditional knowledge as a source of intangible and material wealth, and in particular the knowledge systems of indigenous peoples, and its positive contribution to sustainable development, as well as the need for its adequate protection and promotion".
The Convention shows a change in UNESCO's working concept of culture, something which has happened on many occasions in the last fifty years.
In the 1950s and 1960s UNESCO broadened the concept of culture as art production to include the notion of cultural identity. This was to shift its position to defend cultures in situations of cultural dominance such as those in Colonial situations. In the 1970s and 1980s, the working concept was broadened again to include an awareness of the link between culture and development. Member countries were encouraged to embrace culture in their development policies. In the 1980s and 1990s, this working concept acknowledged cultural aspirations in the construction of democracies. This related to various forms of discrimination and exclusion as experienced by marginalized groups such as indigenous and immigrant groups. In the 1990s and 2000s, UNESCO's working concept of culture includes enhancement of dialogue among many cultures and civilizations in their rich diversity, considered as the common heritage of humanity. This was the thrust of the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity which was adopted by UNESCO in 2001. This concept addresses the dual challenge of cultural diversity which; on the one hand promotes harmonious interaction amongst peoples and groups with plural, varied and dynamic cultural identities as well as willingness to live together; on the other hand defending, creative diversity in the wide variety of forms through which cultures reveal their heritage-related and contemporary expressions in space and time.
The new concept is articulated in the following statement; "Nonetheless, the decision to safeguard diversity in the face of homogenization and the threat of extinction is not synonymous with a vision of culture as unchangeable, isolated and defensive. All cultures are dynamic; they evolve with time, through contact with other cultures - sometimes in the form of exchange, other times conflict. Diversity always involves a degree of tension. Cultures are not sedentary; they're nomadic, they travel with humanity. Not static but fluctuating, they grow and change". This concept of culture forms the basis of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
This new Convention is now one of three pillars of UNESCO which ensure the preservation and promotion of creative diversity. The other two are the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Culture and Natural Heritage and the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
 

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