This is a great place to find answers to questions you may have about the Convention.
The UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Program was introduced in 1992 to promote international interuniversity cooperation and networking and reinforce institutional capacities by getting institutions to pool knowledge and work together. Over 700 institutions in 116 countries are involved in the UNESCO chairs program and UNITWIN networks, working on priority questions in the fields of UNESCO’s purview, i.e., culture, communication, education, the natural sciences, and the social sciences.
Institutions involved in higher education and research around the world use the network to pool their resources, both human and material. It also helps bridge the gaps between academia, civil society, local communities, researchers, and political leaders.
There are currently more than 80 UNESCO chairs working in the area of culture.
There are four main programs for implementing the Convention designed to strengthen the capacities of Parties to develop policies, measures, and programs that have a direct influence on access to a diversity of cultural expressions and on creation, production, and dissemination in this context.
The policy monitoring program serves to support informed policy implementation and strengthen systems of informed, transparent, and participatory governance. The main tool associated with this program is the Enhancing Fundamental Freedoms through the Diversity of Cultural Expressions project, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
Collaboration between the European Union and UNESCO made it possible to create a bank of expertise to strengthen cultural governance mechanisms in developing countries. The objective is to support the governments of these countries in their efforts to consolidate their cultural governance policies and strategies.
The Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity promotes the establishment of new agreements in cultural industries for development between representatives of the public sector, the private sector, and civil society. The Global Alliance acts on two levels: it promotes the exchange of information via its web platform and it supports new projects on the ground.
This pilot program funded by UNESCO’s Emergency Fund allows for long-term strategic investment to provide countries with the tools, capacities, and expertise needed to implement the objectives of the Convention. Various focal areas have been defined to coordinate action.
At the eighth session of the Intergovernmental Committee in December 2014, the Committee decided to submit, at the fifth session of the Conference of Parties, “the proposal to mandate the Committee, in consultation with the Parties, to prepare, at its ninth ordinary session, draft operational guidelines on digital issues and the diversity of cultural expressions that will take into account, in particular, international cooperation” (Decision 8.IGC.12).
During the 5th ordinary session of the CP in June, the IC was tasked with drafting operational guidelines for digital issues.The IC adopted a draft framework for its operational guidelines on digital issues at its 9th session in December 2015. They will be submitted to the IC for adoption at its next meeting in December 2016. Guidelines should be presented by the IC at the CP’s 6th ordinary session.
The International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD) was instituted under Article 18 of the Convention and promotes sustainable development and poverty reduction in developing countries. Projects selected must encourage the emergence of a thriving cultural sector, for example by implementing or developing cultural policy to promote diverse forms of cultural expressions or by strengthening the institutional structures underlying cultural industries. The IFCD does not however fund projects solely aimed at producing cultural expressions. Projects may receive up to $100,000 in funding.
IFCD beneficiaries may be Parties to the Convention or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from developing countries, as well as international organizations that meet the definition of civil society NGOs.
Eligible projects are first evaluated by a panel of international experts from the five UNESCO-defined regions. The panel’s recommendations are then sent on to the Intergovernmental Committee, which meets every year in December. The Committee is in charge of making final decisions regarding projects to fund.
Section VII of the Convention (Final clauses), articles 26 and 27, stipulate that states can deposit instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval, or accession, in accordance with their respective constitutional procedures, to the Secretary-General of UNESCO. To find out more about the steps involved in becoming a party to the Convention, visit the 2005 Convention website, where the ratification process is described in full.
Ratifying the Convention is very important for a host of reasons, including the following:
It is critical that the Convention be ratified by as many parties as possible, from every region of the world. Currently, Asia-Pacific and Arab states are underrepresented. As more states become parties to the Convention, it will exert greater influence in international law. Therefore, states that are party to the Convention and civil society actors must continue their work to encourage the ratification of the Convention and boost visibility by promoting it in international forums.
The Expert Facility was founded in 2011 as part of a European Union–funded project to strengthen the system of governance for culture in developing countries. At the beginning it comprised 30 high-level international experts on cultural policy, governance, and industry, drawn from 24 countries. The Facility exists to support developing countries through technical assistance missions to strengthen their human and institutional capacities as well as their cultural governance systems.
It was reformed in 2015 to enhance its ability to support capacity-building initiatives in countries implementing the Convention. A call for expressions of interest was launched and a new, more geographically diverse, gender-balanced group of 43 experts selected, representing a broader range of fields.
The Expert Facility can be sought out for various interventions, including workshops, advisory technical assistance, short- and long-term capacity building missions, monitoring, or coaching.
Five Canadians are members of the Facility, including Véronique Guèvremont, a professor at Université Laval’s Faculty of Law, holder of the UNESCO Chair on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, and co-founder of the International Network of Lawyers for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, and Charles Vallerand, former executive director of the Canadian Coalition for Cultural Diversity (to June 2016).
The Conference of Parties is made up of all Parties to the Convention. It is the plenary and supreme body of the Convention and meets in ordinary session every two years. Its functions include the following:
The Intergovernmental Committee is made up of 24 Parties to the Convention elected for a term of four years. The Committee operates under the authority of the Conference of Parties and is accountable to it. It meets each year in December. The Committee’s main duties are the following:
The Secretariat assists the Convention bodies. It prepares the documentation of the Conference of Parties and the Intergovernmental Committee, as well as draft agendas of their meetings and helps with and reports on the implementation of their decisions.
Cooperation is one of the founding principles of the 2005 Convention. Many articles make reference to cooperation and provide specific courses of action:
There is no definition of operational guideline in the text of the Convention. However, Article 22.4(c) entrusts the Conference of Parties with responsibility for “approving the operational guidelines prepared by the Intergovernmental Committee.” In addition, Article 23.6(b) of the Convention entrusts the Intergovernmental Committee with the role of “preparing and submitting for approval by the Conference of Parties, upon its request, the operational guidelines for the implementation and application of the provisions of the Convention.”
What does this mean in concrete terms?
An operational guideline is a tool available to the State Parties to the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions to clarify, explain, supplement, and facilitate the understanding of an article or a provision of the Convention, especially when the text of the Convention is vague or not explicitly defined.
Operational guidelines help guide the Parties in implementing articles or provisions of the Convention by defining the terms in a concrete manner. For example, the operational guideline on Article 9 provides a framework for the quadrennial periodic reports that Parties must submit to the UNESCO Secretariat four years after having deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, and every four years thereafter.
To date, twelve articles of the Convention have been the subject of operational guidelines:
There are also operational guidelines on the following topics:
These operational guidelines are available on the UNESCO website in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Serbian.
At the request of the Conference of Parties, an operational guideline may be revised by the Intergovernmental Committee, which then must obtain the approval of the Conference of Parties.
To date, two operational guidelines have been revised:
At the eighth session of the Intergovernmental Committee in December 2014, the Committee decided to submit, at the fifth session of the Conference of Parties, “the proposal to mandate the Committee, in consultation with the Parties, to prepare, at its ninth ordinary session, draft operational guidelines on digital issues and the diversity of cultural expressions that will take into account, in particular, international cooperation” (Decision 8.IGC.12).
During its 5th ordinary session in June 2015, the Conference of Parties (CP) requested the Intergovernmental Committee (IC) to submit draft operational guidelines on digital issues for its approval at its next session (June 2017). At its 9th session in December 2015, the IC was invited to launch an initial debate on the preparation of the draft operational guidelines on digital issues. A draft was adopted by the IC at its 10th meeting in December 2016 and will be submitted to the CP for its approval in June 2017.
The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity was adopted by UNESCO on November 2, 2001, following the events of September 11, 2001. This statement was an opportunity
In December 2002, the UN General Assembly declared May 21 World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. The purpose of this day is to deepen understanding of the values of cultural diversity to learn how to better “live together.” Every year UNESCO invites Member States and civil society to celebrate this day.
The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity is made up of twelve articles proclaiming various principles grouped under the following headings: Identity, Diversity and Pluralism; Cultural Diversity and Human Rights; Cultural Diversity and Creativity, and Cultural Diversity and International Solidarity.
The first principle addressed by the Declaration, in Article 1, asserts that cultural diversity is part of the "common heritage of humanity" and notes that “cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature." In Article 3 the Declaration states that cultural diversity is “one of the roots of development, understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but also as a means to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence."
Whereas the Declaration addresses cultural diversity in its broadest sense, the Convention refers to a specific field of cultural diversity: the diversity of cultural expressions, defined as expressions which "result from the creativity of individuals, groups, and societies, and that have cultural content” (Article 4.3 of the Convention).
The Declaration served as the basis of the Convention, which reaffirms many of its principles including the following:
The Action Plan appended to the Declaration sets several objectives, including "deepening the international debate on […] the advisability of an international legal instrument on cultural diversity." This objective was achieved with the successful drafting of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, adopted in October 2005.