A Convention on Cultural Diversity: From WTO to UNESCO

Abstract

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights grants everybody the right ‘to freedom of opinion and expression … to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers’. Article 27 asserts that everybody has the right to participate freely in the cultural life of their community and enjoy the arts. In many countries, there is a growing perception that free trade agreements have debilitated these and other rights, and that consequently cultural identity is unsettled, and cultural diversity threatened. Concern about multinational conglomerates’ influence over cultural production and circulation, and a desire to ensure that countries can continue to make cultural policies and regulate their cultural markets without contravening commitments made as part of multilateral trade agreements, have contributed to efforts to develop a Convention on Cultural Diversity. UNESCO has now taken on this task. This article discusses the grounds for this Convention, and outlines some of the principles which will underpin it, as well as some of the problems it raises.