Multilateral Fora - UNESCO - History

The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions

Historical process

18 March 2007 – the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions entered into force.
18 December 2006 – the European Union ratified the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
20 October 2005 – the 33rd General Conference of UNESCO adopted the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the diversity of Cultural Expressions.
September 2005 - the Executive Council of UNESCO adopted a decision recommending the adoption of the draft convention at the General Conference in October 2005.
4 July 2005 - the Commission organised a consultation meeting following the third session of negotiations between government experts, to discuss the revised preliminary draft convention
September 2004 – June 2005 - Three sessions of negotiations involving government experts took place resulting, at the third session, in the adoption of a revised preliminary draft convention.
November 2004 – the Council of Ministers authorised the Commission to negotiate on behalf of the European Community. Article 27 of the Convention establishes the possibility for the European Community to become a contracting party and play an active role in the organs of the Convention, in particular the Conference of the Parties established by Article 22 of the Convention.
1 September 2004 - On the basis of the analysis of the preliminary draft, the Commission adopted a recommendation to the Council to authorise the Commission to participate, on behalf of the Community, in the negotiations within UNESCO on the convention on the protection of the diversity of cultural contents and artistic expressions.
16 July 2004 – the Secretariat transmitted of a text constituting the basis for the preliminary draft convention to the members of UNESCO.
December 2003 – May 2004 – the group of fifteen independent experts chosen by the Director General in order to prepare a framework for a draft convention met three times during this period.
27 August 2003 – the European Commission Communication "Towards an international instrument on cultural diversity".
April 2003 - the Executive Board's recommendation by consensus to the General Conference
November 2001 – UNESCO unanimously adopted the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity and the supporting Action Plan .
1998 – Cultural diversity became one of the major issues of the international debate among international and regional organisations.

The issue of cultural diversity was examined by the following bodies:

the G8 (Okinawa, 2000)
the Council of Europe (Declaration on cultural diversity, December 2000)
UNESCO (Universal Declaration and Action Plan on Cultural Diversity, November 2001, for which the European Community and its Member States expressed their support)
the United Nations and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) through the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) (Geneva, 2003) (Tunisia, 2005)