Caribbean Cultural Organizations Task Force Meets in Barbados, Launches Process for Creating a Caribbean CCD

Seven representatives of cultural and civil society organizations from six English-speaking Caribbean countries gathered in Bridgetown, Barbados, on February 9 2009 for a meeting of a task force of Caribbean cultural organizations established at the conclusion of the First Meeting of Professional Cultural Organizations from Commonwealth Caribbean Countries held in Port of Spain, Trinidad, last July.

The Barbados meeting resulted in the decision by the participants to move forward with the plan to establish a regional coalition and to begin immediately initiating national consultations to that end. Working group members will therefore begin consultations with all the organizations that took part in last July’s Port of Spain meeting before extending the exercise to organizations in other English-speaking Caribbean countries.

In a news release issued following the meeting, the Task Force called upon all Caribbean states that have not yet done so to ratify the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, noting that only four countries from the region have ratified the instrument to date. The Task Force also stressed the importance of coherence between the Convention and other international treaties and expressed reservations about the relevance of linking cultural cooperation protocols to trade agreements, as in the case of the Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and CARIFORUM countries.

Jim McKee, General Secretary of the IFCCD, attended the Barbados meeting on behalf of the Federation. Both the Bridgetown and the Port of Spain meetings were made possible by funding provided by the Commonwealth Foundation, the civil society arm of the Commonwealth.