Substantive Rights and Obligations Under the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity

Abstract

The adopted version of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CCD) has not become as powerful an instrument against the expansionist powers of economic globalisation under the WTO regime as its initiators hoped it to be. Though providing many rights for the Parties to the Convention to protect and promote their culture, it lacks both binding obligations and a compulsory dispute settlement mechanism. Furthermore, the CCD does not provide any criteria to distinguish between licit and protectionist cultural policy measures. However, the Convention can still be seen as a first step to strengthen the position of cultural values and interests. In the future, the Parties to the CCD could work out mechanisms to interpret the provisions of the Convention, thus giving them more sharpness, and the development of a proportionality or necessity test to scrutinise the Parties' measures and policies could further improve the normative relevance of the CCD.

Keywords: UNESCO Convention, CCD, Diversity of Cultural Expressions, cultural diversity, protectionist measure, conciliation mechanism, Intergovernmental Committee