CULTURAL DIVERSITY:

A CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE

Organisation Internationale de la francophonie Intergovernmental Agency of LA FRANCOPHONIE

"Cultural goods and services , because they are vehicles of collective identities and because they contribute to individual fulfillment, must receive special treatment. Faced with the threatening homogenization of ways of life and means of expression, as well as life styles, ensuring freedom of determination for states and governments appears top offer the best guarantee for a pluralistic cultural expression."

Declaration of the third Ministerial Conference of francophonie on culture

Cotonou (Benin), June 15, 2001.

CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

"As a source of exchange, innovation and creativity, cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature. In this sense, it is the common heritage of humanity."         UNESCO Universal Declaration on cultural diversity, November 2001.

GLOBALIZATION AND CULTURE

Globally, cultural diversity is threatened. Globalization has provided considerable benefits for stakeholders in the cultural sector, but it has also generated a movement towards uniformity that jeopardizes cultural diversity. International commercial negotiations on trade in services, such as the ongoing "Doha Round" within the WTO framework, could cripple the ability of public authorities to intervene on behalf of cultural diversity.

"Globalization, which brings together and unites, also tends to erase identities, to lead to uniformity. You are right to be concerned about this and to do everything you can to prevent the mergence of a sadly homogeneous world.

Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations

Paris (France), December 8^th, 1998 THE NEED TO MOBILIZE

Culture should be a central element in the struggle to overcome poverty and to establish sustainable development. People from all walks of life, in the public and private sectors, civil society entities, artists and distributors are all challenged by this issue.

"There can be no human dignity, democracy or sustainable development if we do not work all together, at comforting and enhancing cultural identities (...). This is not a side­show opposing academics, law experts and diplomats, this is a fundamental struggle for the dignity of every man and woman.

Roger Dehaybe,

General Administrator of the Intergovernmental Agency of La Francophonie

Dakar( Senegal), June 20, 2003. TOWARDS AN INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON CULTURAL DIVERSITY

The Francophonie movement is at the forefront of those seeking to establish a new form of international Law, ensuring that cultural goods and services are treated according to their specificity. The Francophonie has been a proponent of the drafting and the adoption of an international Convention on Cultural Diversity by UNESCO since 2001. This legal instrument will confer on public authorities the rights to intervene on behalf of cultural development, within a context that must encourage cultural exchanges on a global scale.

" We reaffirm the right of our States and governments to freely define their cultural

policies and the instruments contributing to them (...).

We support the principle of the drafting of a universal regulatory framework and we have

consequently decided to contribute actively to the adoption by UNESCO of an

international  convention on cultural diversity,  enshrining the right of States and

governments to maintain, set and develop policies supporting culture and cultural

diversity.

Declaration of the Ninth Summit of Francophonie

Beyrouth (Lebanon), 2002.

RESOURCES ON CULTURAL DIVERSITY

International Organization of La Francophonie www.francophonie.org

Intergovernmental Agency of La Francophonie www.agence.francophonie.org

13 quai Andre-Citroen

75015 Paris (France)

phone (33) 1 44 37 33 99

fax (33) 1 44 37 14 98

e-mail patrice.burel@francophonie.org

Permanent Forum on Cultural Diversity www.planetagora.org

UNESCO

www.uneseo.org

International Network on Cultural Policy www.incp-rip.org