FIA, FIM Reiterate Support for UNESCO Convention

The International Federation of Actors (FIA) and the International Federation of Musicians (FIM) each held their XIXth Congresses during the month of October, and both used the occasion as an opportunity to reaffirm their engagement to promote the broader ratification and effective implementation of the UNESCO Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions.

Meeting in Johannesburg October 1-3, over a hundred FIM delegates adopted two resolutions. In one, they engage FIM and its member unions to “pursue their efforts to convince states that have not yet ratified the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions to do so as soon as possible.” Delegates also pledged to play an active role in implementing the Convention “by using in particular the possibilities afforded by Article 11.”

In another resolution, delegates agreed that FIM request that the UNESCO Convention “be implemented forthwith by states that have ratified it. The promotion of cultural diversity must not be hindered by any free-competition or market-rule argument. This Convention must produce practical results and become an instrument for enriching dialogue between Nations.”

Moreover, in additional resolutions, FIM also committed to assist members in lobbying UNESCO member states to promote cultural policies that include specific measures aimed at preserving and enhancing traditional music; and consistent with the provisions of Article 16 of the Convention, pledged to work to “facilitate the issuing of visas to artists from third countries, so as to respect the principle of solidarity and international cooperation embodied in the Convention” while emphasizing the importance of governments consulting with local performing artists’ unions in the visa issuing process.

Later in the month—gathering in Marrakesh, Morocco, October 23-27, close to 180 FIA delegates from performers’ unions similarly affirmed their commitment to realizing the potential of the UNESCO Convention as an international legal instrument for upholding the right of states to apply cultural policies.

Calling the 2005 adoption of the Convention by UNESCO states “a decisive moment in the realisation and recognition by States, for the first time in history, that artistic works, across all disciplines, cannot simply be considered as goods like any other,” FIM delegates stressed the broader ratification of the Convention as being of “supreme importance if we wish to avoid a situation where the cultural sector simply serves as a bargaining chip in relation to other economic sectors, in a world ruled by the laws of liberalization and competition.”

“For these reasons the International Federation of Actors will seek to:

• Support its members to place pressure on their respective governments to ratify the Convention, where they have not already done so
• Encourage, through the networking of cultural professionals in different countries, the creation of national coalitions for cultural diversity, where these do not already exist.”

  Hosted by the SNPT Morocco performing artist’s union, the FIA Congress was noteworthy for the fact that, in a speech delivered on his behalf during the October 23 opening ceremonies, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI stated that the country’s government was in the process of completing its ratification of the UNESCO Convention.

  Jim McKee, General Secretary of the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (IFCCD), was invited to both Congresses to provide an update on the current state of the ratification campaign for the Convention and on the process now underway for implementing it.