Caribbean Cultural Organizations Gather in Port of Spain—Affirm Importance of Rapid Ratification of 2005 Convention in Region

Representatives of some 20 professional cultural organizations from Caribbean member States of the Commonwealth met in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, July 6-8 to discuss the UNESCO Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions—in particular, its potential for supporting the development of the cultural industries of the region.

Participants unanimously recognized the urgent need to work together advocating that their respective governments ratify the 2005 UNESCO Convention on a priority basis and engage civil society in its implementation.

Ten Caribbean States were represented at the Port of Spain meeting. To date, only two of the 11 Caribbean member States of the Commonwealth have ratified the Convention—Jamaica and St. Lucia.

The first day of meetings centred on presentations by Ivan Bernier, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Law, University of Laval, Quebec, and Véronique Guèvremont, also a professor of international law with the University of Laval, on the evolution of the campaign for the UNESCO Convention and the key role cultural organizations need to play in ensuring its implementation. The day also included a roundtable exchange with participants concerning the status of their government’s plans to ratify the Convention, and more specific discussions concerning sectoral policy debates currently underway across the region.

The second day’s agenda focused in greater depth on issues specific to the development of the Caribbean’s cultural industries.

The day featured a presentation by Blockbusters and Trade Wars author Peter Grant on elements of the cultural policy toolkit that Caribbean States could make use of in ensuring Caribbean cultural content is available across the region as well circulating more widely at the international level.

Dr. Keith Nurse, Director of the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, provided a detailed overview of the current state of economic development of the Caribbean cultural industries. Dr. Nurse is one of six experts recently commissioned by UNESCO to prepare papers addressing the challenge of making operational Article 16 of the Convention, which undertakes States Parties to accord preferential treatment to artists and creators, and cultural goods and services coming from developing countries.

In the afternoon session, Kentillia Louis of the Cultural Development Foundation, St. Lucia, Erica Smith of the Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Barbados, and Ian Randle of the Caribbean Publishers' Network, Jamaica, reported on the current state of affairs in their respective cultural sectors, launching a discussion enriched by several contributions by other participants in the room.

Participants adopted a final declaration affirming the urgent need for their governments to ratify the UNESCO Convention, uphold its principles and objectives in future trade negotiations, and actively engage civil society in implementation of the Convention in terms of concrete policy action to support the cultural sectors of the Caribbean. A task force was also established to support work to this end, and to lay the foundation for an eventual Caribbean coalition for cultural diversity.

The meeting was organized by the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity in association with Canada’s Coalition for Cultural Diversity, the Institute of International Relations of the University of the West Indies and CAFRA (the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action), and was made possible by the financial support of the Commonwealth Foundation.