Summary: In the morning, the drafting committee met and discussed article 7, especially the clause "States Parties shall ensure IPRs are fully respected and enforced according to existing international instruments to which States are parties, particularly through the development or strengthening of measures against piracy." Despite the recommendations of the plenary, which tended towards either deleting the intellectual property language or at least eliminating the clause about 'development or strengthening of measures against piracy,' the USA - with some support from Ecuador (?!) did not allow the deletion of the text or even a bracket on the whole clause. Instead, after strenuous effort by Brazil, 'IP rights,' 'fully respect and enforce' and 'or strengthening' were bracketed, while a footnote was added to 'piracy' indicating that it was problematic and undefined. Meanwhile, the Brazilian proposal 7.4, "States Parties undertake to ensure in their territory protection against unwarranted appropriation of traditional and popular cultural contents and expressions, with particular regard to preventing the granting of invalid intellectual property rights," was shot through with brackets by the chair and the USA. This was despite near unanimous approval of the original language during the earlier discussion of this clause in plenary. In addition, the USA added a footnote that it should be discussed in other fora, which would be a fine point except they refused to allow a similar footnote on the piracy clause.

To UNESCO Delegates: The undersigned support the spirit of the UNESCO draft convention on cultural diversity and are encouraged by the efforts of the delegates in their inter-governmental meeting in Paris, January- February 2005. However, we are deeply concerned that the current draft mentions the need to protect or even strengthen intellectual property more than 16 times, while failing entirely to mention the need to protect access to knowledge, the public domain, and the cultural commons. If this imbalance is not corrected, the proposed Convention would represent a serious departure from both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity.

Summary: Today the drafting committee met all morning to continue working. In the afternoon, plenary met to discuss the new draft of articles 12 through 18 (except 13), on rights and obligations of the signatories of the convention, as well as the president's suggestions for the definition of 'protect.' In general, it was encouraging to see some progress coming from the drafting committee, with suggestions for articles 12 through 18 that took into account many comments from the plenary. Unfortunately, the imperative to developed states (especially in article 13) to make room in their markets for developing country cultural expressions has been watered down with language like 'encourage, where possible, with a view to.' On the good side, many provisions describing cultural policies that should be part of the 'toolkit' remain in, when they might have been deleted. Also positive, the proposed definition of 'cultural goods and services' that came from the president has removed the unbalanced clause on intellectual property. That's not a done deal, however, and will come up for debate in the drafting committee tonight and in plenary tomorrow.

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) represents the interests of library and information services and their users worldwide. It is the global voice of the library and information profession and is a long-time accredited NGO (non-governmental organization) with UNESCO...

Summary: The entire morning was taken up by largely unsubstantive questions and procedural discussion regarding the final clauses of the convention, 25 through 29, on ratification and so forth. There was some back and forth on the number of states required for the convention to entry into force, and some discussion of the special clause referring to countries that have a federal system. In broad strokes, it seems at this point impossible for them to finish the week with a final revised text. What will most likely happen (though this is subject to debate) is the following: this week will end with recommendations from the plenary to the drafting committee on most or all of the draft text. The drafting committee won't have time to incorporate all of these and report back to plenary, so the drafting committee will either be held over several more days or called back to work in a few weeks. Some version of a revised text will be submitted on March 3rd, which is required in order to meet the 7 month deadline before the General Assembly in the fall. Then, there will have to be another intergovernmental, probably in May. On the US side, the State Department is willing to organize a briefing for public interest groups sometime before this May meeting.

Delivered to the plenary of the II intergovernmental session; Monday, February 7th, 2005

Mr. chairman, delegates,

On Article 19 - Relationship to other instruments: all of the NGO signatories to the position of the Communication Rights campaign strongly support a modified version of Option A over Option B. Like Brazil, Andora, Vietnam, and others, our position is that Paragraph 2 of Option A should become the full text of Article 19, as follows:

Summary: First, it was announced that the drafting committee made very little progress over the weekend, so time in plenary this week will be kept for the most part to half days to allow the drafting committee more time. Today's plenary discussed articles 13 and 19, on "international consultation and coordination," and "relationship to other instruments," respectively.

Delivered to the plenary of the second intergovernmental session of the draft UNESCO convention on cultural diversity (convention on the protection and promotion of cultural contents and artistic expressions).

Summary: In the morning, first, the chair reported that last night's drafting committee meeting was long and cumbersome, with very little progress made. Next, the legal advisor responded to yesterday's concerns about interference with other international law by drawing delegates' attention to the formal comments submitted by WTO, WIPO, and UNCTAD. Then, NGO lobbying for time partly paid off, with the chair announcing that we would have 10 minutes to speak at the end of the discussion on article 7 (which includes some unfortunate IP language about an undefined 'piracy.')

Summary: The day began with the chair's report that yesterday evening's drafting committee came to consensus on the first part of the article of the convention that deals with its objectives. Then the discussion moved for the first time into the meat of the convention: the rights and obligations of the states.

Summary: The chair introduced a timetable for negotiations for the next week and a half. The discussion on definitions concluded with general consensus on most terms, to be sent to the drafting committee, but with a working group of Brazil, Japan, USA, and Luxembourg (representing the EU) to discuss the definition of 'cultural goods and services' and report back to the plenary tomorrow.

Summary: In the morning, there was a reportback from the ad hoc working group on title and principles, which included the recommendation that the term 'protect' be bracketed, reflecting the US position. A discussion ensued on the legitimacy of the ad hoc working group versus the formal drafting committee, resulting more or less in a consensus that the drafting committee would be a more appropriate place to revise text than any ad hoc working group.

India News > Shanghai, Oct 16 : India today expressed serious reservations over a draft convention being discussed at the UNESCO which infringed on the rights and obligations of sovereign states and called for redrafting it so as to allow countries to nurture their cultural diversity.

Seeking Convergence in Policy and Practice: Communications in the Public Interest, Vol.2: In this new collection, noted Canadian academics and activists explore critical communications issues, from the World Summit on the Information Society to meaningful citizen engagement in public policy debate amidst new transnational regulatory regimes.

The Telecommunications Workers Union's (Canada) analysis of e-commerce and the impact of the General Agreement on Trade in Services. This document outlines the primary impacts of deregulation on the telecommunication industry amidst a global political, economic and social system that places increased importance on telecommunications infrastructure.

This document, produced by Canada's largest communication union (the Communication, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada), outlines the organization's proposed telecommunications policy. Written for the CEP's 2004 national convention, the policy outlines recommendations for the union's activities in the sector and outlines its position in regard to universal service, quality of service and foreign ownership restrictions.