International Network for Cultural Diversity
Vol. 6 No 7
Contents:
1. INCD News and Events
LAST CHANCE to register for the INCD
meeting 17-20 November, Dakar, Senegal
The 6th Annual Meeting of the International Network for Cultural Diversity, to
be held 17-20 November 2005 in Dakar, Senegal, is taking place a crucial time.
Shortly before, UNESCO is expected to approve the terms of the Convention on
cultural diversity that has been at the forefront of the INCD’s work since its
first meeting in 2000. We will look at the results. But, even the most effective
Convention, while an essential foundation, will not bring diversity. Achieving
greater cultural diversity requires the development of cultural capacity and
creative industries and more balance in the global exchange of cultural goods
and services. We will explore these issues as well. The meeting will follow the
2nd World Summit on the Information Society and will be an important opportunity
to discuss issues of media ownership and pluralism, public access and the
content being delivered by the digital networks.
INCD meets in conjunction with the meeting of culture ministers organized in the
International Network on Cultural Policy. Delegates can interact informally with
culture ministers at an exciting joint social and cultural event being hosted by
the Minister of Culture of Senegal. The conclusions of the INCD meeting will be
presented to the ministers’ meeting.
The co-hosts of the meeting, Cultural Diversity, Social Cohesion and Sustainable
Development: Cultural diversity for human development, alleviating poverty,
overcoming inequality and promoting empowerment are the Senegalese Coalition for
Cultural Diversity and the Senegalese Coalition of Socio-Cultural Actors.
For registration information, please contact Albanela Pérez-Suárez,
albanela@ccarts.ca
2. Convention on the Protection
and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions – Approval by
UNESCO
General Conference Expected Soon
By
Garry Neil, Executive Director
In a nearly unanimous vote, UNESCO’s Executive Board on 23 September urged the
General Conference to adopt the new convention on cultural diversity. The
Culture Commission of the UNESCO General Conference will review the Convention
on 17-18 October and the decision made by the Commission will be submitted to
the Plenary on 20 October for final approval.
There is likely to be some debate within the Commission. The U.S. is arguing the
Convention requires further consideration and that it is premature for UNESCO to
adopt it in 2005. Japan has put forward an amendment that attempts to confirm
that this Convention is limited to “culture” and its provision “shall not
compromise” rights and obligations in other fields. The Executive Director of
the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts has criticized the Convention:
“… it restricts the free flow of ideas and information, not only among nations
but among individuals and among groups. At its worst, I think it could be used
to justify government censorship -- both political and cultural censorship. And
at its best, it does not promote cultural diversity.”
The U.S. government has launched a major campaign to oppose the Convention,
including bilateral discussions with many countries at senior levels. The
International Herald Tribune reports that U.S. “Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice has written to member governments expressing ‘deep concern’ about the
convention,” and is considering whether to reduce its financial support to
UNESCO as a sign of its displeasure.
However, given the overwhelming consensus in support of the text agreed by the
intergovernmental committee in June, INCD anticipates that the Convention will
receive the necessary two-thirds vote in support.
The next stage in the process is for States to ratify the Convention. According
to its terms, the Convention will “come into force three months after the date
of deposit of the thirtieth instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or
accession.” This is the minimum number required, but many more are needed if the
Convention is to make a significant difference.
The ratification process will not be an easy one. For countries with developed
cultural industries that have been negatively affected by globalisation, the
Convention will be supported strongly. The endorsement of the European
Commission may bring early ratification by many European states. However, given
the absence of strong incentives in the Convention, it may not have a high
priority on a crowded public policy agenda in countries with less developed
cultural industries. Further, the U.S. can be expected to continue applying
pressure on a bilateral basis to try to slow down the ratification process.
The optimistic timetable would be for more than 30 ratifications to be secured
by June 2007, in which case UNESCO could convene the first meeting of the
Conference of Parties at the time of the 2007 General Conference meeting. That
body would then select the Intergovernmental Committee and decide on the
operational guidelines to implement the Convention.
INCD’s response to the Convention and these developments will be considered at
length by the delegates to the upcoming 6th Annual Meeting in Senegal.
3. From Information to
Knowledge-based Societies: Sustainable Development or Deepening the Digital
Divide?
By
Garry Neil, Executive Director
The second half of the World Summit on the Information Society is being held in
Tunis next month. We thought you might be interested in the following extract
from a speech prepared by Executive Director, Garry Neil, for the recent Arts
Electronica Conference in Linz, Austria.
”This past April, I received a notice from my cell phone company about a new
service being launched in 2005. You should know that, like others who travel for
work and probably like many of you in this room today, I already use the phone
not only for voice communication, but also for my emails, text messaging and to
surf the Internet. I can take and send pictures instantly to family and friends
wherever I, and they, might happen to be. It’s my personal data organizer, with
calendar, address book and my To Do lists. I can hook up my micro speakers and
play some of my favourite music which I have stored (digitally of course) on a
small card that inserts in the back. I could use it to play games if I were so
inclined. With a small portable keyboard, I work on documents, spreadsheets and
run other business applications when I’m away from home. In April, Rogers
Communications told me I’ll be able to watch television programs, starting next
month. Of course, I need to upgrade to a newer phone, subscribe to the new
service and pay them even more money.
“In Japan, it’s already the case that 59 percent of all cell phone airtime is
used to access entertainment content. Convergence of telecom, information
technology, the Internet, media and entertainment, is here and changing
dramatically the way we live. When I’m not traveling, the computer will soon be
fully integrated with my home theatre system and I will have access in theory to
a veritable universe of information, entertainment and news.
“There are obviously many, many issues that arise from these developments, many
challenges and many opportunities. Among them are some that most concern me and
the INCD.
“Is this convergence really increasing my range of choices? Is it truly giving
me access to an ever-expanding number of possibilities? Instead of Sony’s
version of World Music, will I be able to hear a new singer directly from a
small African country for myself, or to tap into a cultural performance from
Tonga or Nicaragua? Will I be able to follow my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs
hockey team, despite the fact that the fate of the Leafs is completely
irrelevant to more than 1 billion people in China where I might happen to be at
a given time?
“Or, is this convergence actually narrowing my choices and creating a world in
which I will only have access to news as seen through the eyes of CNN, Fox or
the BBC; to sports scores from American or European football; and to
entertainment brought to us by Disney and Bertelsmann?
“The answer of course is that we are at a critical crossroads at the moment –
down one path lies diversity, a flourishing of cultures and a celebration of
differences; down the other path lies homogenization. Which path we go down
depends on a number of factors and decisions, some of which are irreversible,
many of which are being made today.
“Because there are some who disagree, I should state that, in my view, achieving
greater diversity of artistic expressions and cultural contents in all media,
and more balanced trade in cultural goods and services between all countries and
cultures, are important objectives. In the field of human creativity, choice is
a good thing. Maintaining and encouraging the rich diversity of our languages
and cultures is also a good thing. And these should be maintained not as
historical artifacts. The Inuit of Canada’s north need a word for the GPS unit,
because that’s now an important way for them to follow and to hunt the caribou.
The Inuit also have every right to tell their own legends through feature films
or new media productions if that is what they want.
“Let me very briefly then review several important factors which will help to
determine which path we will take, the path of diversity or the path of
homogenization. I acknowledge that merely putting these on the table is not
entirely satisfactory, because each alone could be the subject of a lengthy
discourse ….
1. “Concentration and cross-ownership, between telecom, information technology,
Internet, media and entertainment companies, are serious threats to cultural
diversity. It is in the economic interests of Rogers Communications to control
various distribution systems. My cell phone supplier started as a cable
television company and it is now also my Internet Service Provider at home. It’s
in their economic interests to control content as well, and they do this through
various broadcasters, including an all-sports channel and they also own
Toronto’s major league baseball team. It’s probably little surprise to you to
hear that Rogers Communications is 20 percent owned by AT&T and would probably
be a wholly owned subsidiary of this huge U.S. corporation were it not for
ownership limits regulated by the Canadian government. A Hollywood blockbuster
can earn far more revenues if it can attract audiences around the word and
that’s easier to do if there are fewer languages and cultural sensitivities to
worry about. You know, beginning in 2003, Hollywood majors earned more box
office revenues in foreign markets than they did in the domestic market…..
2. “Ensuring cultural diversity and choice requires proactive and supportive
public policies. It requires regulation of markets, provision of financial
subsidies and other appropriate measures. Citizens, societies and governments
have a right and responsibility to support their own artists and cultural
producers, and a right as well to place legitimate obligations on private sector
companies to support artists and to connect them with audiences.
3. “Ensuring more balanced exchanges between cultures requires new forms of
international cooperation to assist the development of creative industries in
countries that, while rich in the diversity of their cultural traditions and
arts, may lack the capacity to bring these stories and music to contemporary
media.
4. “Many of these public policies and the new forms of international cooperation
are threatened by economic globalization, and the trade and investment
agreements. Economic globalization and free trade are about “economies of
scale”, the “survival of the fittest” and “comparative advantage,” not about
diversity and a flourishing of small suppliers from every country, which is
fundamentally what cultural diversity is about. The ownership rules that stop
Rogers Communications from being swallowed up by AT&T are under threat in
Canada. Rogers is taking the position with Canada’s broadcast regulatory
authority that their new mobile broadcasting service should be exempt from the
Canadian content rules that underpin Canada’s film/television and music
production industries.
5. “And finally, these threats will not reversed by the new UNESCO Convention on
the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions. The draft
Convention, which is widely expected to be ratified by the UNESCO General
Conference next month, is a positive political step that hopefully will create
an environment and a forum in which governments and civil society groups
concerned about these issues will have an opportunity to continue to work
together. Maybe it will even slow down the erosion of cultural sovereignty. But,
it has not succeeded in carving-out cultural goods and services from the trade
agreements.
“This panel has been asked to answer the question of whether the new
technological developments will bring about sustainable development or deepen
the digital divide. Another interesting recent statistic is that in 2003, while
there were only 25 million landline phones in Africa, and fewer than one in five
Africans had a reliable source of electricity, there were 52 million African
cell phone subscribers. Without the mobilization of citizens everywhere in
support of strong policies to promote media pluralism and diversity of content,
I fear the following future. There will continue to be rapid deployment of
digital technologies around the world, but fewer choices of content. So, what
the Inuit hunter in Canada’s North on his GPS unit, the Southern Africa bushman
on his cell phone, and Garry Neil in Toronto on his home entertainment system
will be able to access is a narrow range of content, whether entertainment, news
or information, produced and programmed for us by an ever-smaller number of
people, working for fewer and fewer global companies.”
4. Mexican Civil Society’s
Movement for the Promotion of Culture
Special
Report by Rafael Segovia, Member of the INCD’s Steering Committee
The recent months have seen Mexico’s political temperature rising at exponential
rate. The 2006 federal elections are the main focus, since the traditional
stakes are raised by the appearance on the political scene of Andrés Manuel
López Obrador, the leftist (PRD ) mayor of Mexico City whose strong media
presence has gained him support from many of the key sectors of social,
political and economical power. If he were to win the 2006 elections, it would
probably bring a radical shift in Mexican politics, an end many of the
traditional prerogatives of the long-ruling PRI and the right-wing, catholic PAN
(its “second voice” for many years, presently holding the presidential office).
But above these changes in the political balance, Mexican civil society is
extremely dissatisfied with the political system and is calling for an end to
corruption, violence and crime, and of economic and political dependence on the
US, which have been a characteristic of the 70-year long rule of the PRI and the
chaotic five years of the PAN government.
In the midst of this unrest, the cultural sector has seen its own interests more
and more affected by activities of transnational corporations, erosion of public
policies and the growing inefficiency of public cultural agencies. While the
ministries of Revenue and Economic Affairs have been inflicting budget cuts,
increasing tax burdens and promoting privatization in the cultural sector, the
National Council for the Arts (CONACULTA) has proved many times ready to
foreclose entire sectors of the State’s cultural network, and to open areas of
highly symbolic value (like archaeological sites) to private investment. As one
example, in 2003, Conaculta engaged in a process to close down its cinema school
(out of the two that exist in the country), the State-owned Churubusco cinema
studios, the National Fund for the Promotions of Crafts (FONART) and the Mexican
Institute of Cinema (IMCINE).
In response, the community demonstrated in the streets and in the media, and
managed to stop the agency’s plans. But others were to come, leading to the
resignation of half a dozen key cultural officials, including the director of
the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA), Ignacio Toscano; the director of the
National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Sergio Raúl Arroyo; the
director of Legal Affairs, Francisco Dorantes and; the director of the National
Center of the Arts (CENART), Lucina Jiménez. A few more have privately announced
their intention to leave. This “official criticism” has meant moral support for
civil society opponents of the Federal Government’s cultural policy.
In the meantime, a financial “scandal”, whose origin is to be found in the
opposition between the Congress and the Government, has affected the cultural
sector. In December 2004, the Deputies modified the 2005 Federal Budget
presented to them by the President’s economic team, and among other measures
raised the cultural sector’s budget in a significant proportion, turning it into
the highest budget ever granted to the cultural sector. This modification
included monies that would alleviate a long-lasting conflict between the
cultural workers’ unions from the INBA and the INAH and their employers. The new
budget was vetoed by President Fox and what could have been a soothing measure
turned into a bitter dispute, now directly aimed at the Conaculta and the
Federal Government.
It is worth mentioning here that another sort of conflict had been prevailing
for years between Conaculta and both the INBA and the INAH. These Institutes
were, prior to the creation of Conaculta (1988), the main and only cultural
agencies of the Federal Government, and were founded by a full legal
constitution. Conaculta was created by a simple presidential decree, and acts as
a decentralized agency, which means its legal status is inferior to that of the
INAH and INBA. Even so, Conaculta has tried to take the main functions of the
Institutes and it duplicates some of their departments and, with discretionary
powers and financial prerogatives, there have been many controversial cases of
corruption and embezzlement.
In this highly flammable context, various key civil society movements are in the
process of converging, and building a shared vision of a new institutional order
for culture.
The first one I will mention is probably the most dynamic and organized civil
society group, the [Group for] “Media Democracy.” The participants come from a
range of media and communication milieus, such as community radio broadcasters,
independent video and/or cinema producers, internet developers, journalists,
etc.
This group has been struggling to open a space for dialogue with the
governmental agencies in charge of communication issues: the Ministries of
Communications and Transport (SCT), of the Interior (SEGOB), of Foreign Affairs
(SRE) and the Congress. Their negotiations have been primarily about the new
Federal Law of Radio and TV, which has been obstructed for almost three years –
after being approved by the Senate – under pressure from lobbies of the
commercial media sector, which is highly concentrated.
Among the issues this law should have settled is the legal framework needed by
community radio to operate on a stable basis, under certain legal and technical
guarantees. Instead, the AMARC Mexican chapter has been forced to fight a
trench-by-trench battle merely to obtain a renewal of the old permits, cancelled
as a result of the lobbyists’ pressures.
The group is now struggling to get a voice in the WSIS process, as a formal
member of the Mexican delegation in Tunis. Despite many meetings, information
sessions and negotiation rounds, there is not as yet a clear commitment from the
officials. However, the members of international organizations, such as AMARC or
APC, will be attending WSIS through their organizations and they will be able to
confront the Mexican delegation, if by then they have not been admitted to be a
part of it.
The second group, which much larger and varied, was born when a key political
group named the National Association for the Reformation of the State decided to
engage into a broad civil society consultation leading to a nationwide lobby to
change the structural conditions which bring corruption and violations of human
rights.
At a certain point during this Civil Society Agenda for the State Reformation (CSASR)
process, I was invited to join the organizing committee as a representative of a
number of cultural groups, including INCD. The Committee has now been convinced
of the importance of culture in creating the backbone of a new constitutional
order and has created a task group on “Human Heritage and Development”, a
multi-field permanent forum for the discussion of Culture, Education, Scientific
Research, Cultural Heritage, Indigenous and Traditional Cultures, and the Media.
The First National Meting of the CSASR took place in Pátzcuaro, a beautiful
colonial town in the Central-Western State of Michoacán. The conclusions of the
cultural working group (composed of 38 persons from a diversity of fields and
States) were rich and creative and included proposals for a constitutional
reform (in particular, the recognition of individual cultural rights and
liberties), a legislative reform and an institutional reform, all three based on
a new vision of culture and cultural diversity as tools for development, and as
the very ground on which the foundations of a healthy, democratic State can be
built.
Following this first national meeting, there will be a series of regional
meetings leading to a more profound diagnosis of the problems affecting the
various cultural sectors throughout the country. The final conclusions of the
fora will be brought to the candidates in the 2006 elections and pushed forward
by a full spectrum of the civil society organizations of the country. The
process is being supported by the UNDP as well as the Rockefeller Foundation and
the Mexican Institute for Social Development (INDESOL), and the initiative comes
from the Association for the Reformation of the State, which includes some of
the most brilliant politicians, intellectuals and scholars as its members.
On another rather different scene, the Congress made a public call for civil
society’s participation in the “Culture Parliament”, an initiative aiming at
building support for legislative projects that are part of Conaculta’s
governance project. Conaculta is trying to gain legal status by promoting a new
Law which would provide it with a legal status either through the Culture
Ministry or as a “decentralized agency.” Conaculta is also promoting
constitutional amendments: one, inspired by UNESCO’s recommendations, being the
inclusion of cultural rights separate from the right to education; the other
being to strengthen individual and corporate property rights, as a response to
the pressures of the US on the issue of piracy. In this project, there is a
proposal to state the importance of cultural industries as a key sector for
industrial and economic development. The third project in the Congress’s agenda
is a “General Law of Culture”, which has not yet been discussed and has little
chance of being approved before the end of the term of this Congress. The draft
general law proposed by the PRD is nevertheless an interesting project,
providing for key issues, such as the right of citizen’s to enjoy, practice,
preserve and promote culture in all its forms, or some obligations of the State
to ensure cultural liberties and to provide the necessary funding for cultural
development.
Whatever the agenda of the Parliament of Culture may have been, some sectors in
the civil society opposed the meetings arguing that it was an irregular process:
the call for presentations and delegates was made with only two weeks time
before the preliminary regional meetings, which were set in only six cities –
five in the end, since the Acapulco forum was cancelled – and were far away from
the majority’s reach. Some in the cultural community believe this was intended
to keep them away from the consultation process and to include a majority of
cultural officers and government employees.
INCD’s member, the Mexican Network for Cultural Diversity, was trying to
organize a forum of artists and cultural actors to follow up on the issues of
the Patzcuaro meeting, and was therefore interacting with some of the protesting
groups, who proposed to focus the forum we were organizing on the issues raised
by the convocation. Nevertheless, we were soon outnumbered by another group,
scholars and technicians (restorers, archaeologists, arts teachers, historians
and the like) from the INBA and the INAH, who were organizing another similar
forum. We eventually decided to join their call to host an “Alternative
Parliament of Culture”, which was to take place in the dates between the
regional fora and the conclusions session (held in Mexico City) of the
“official” Parliament.
The presentations during this “alternative” Parliament consisted a highly
accurate diagnosis of many of the most urgent problems in the various cultural
fields. And the final conclusions were concise and radical:
• The Alternative Parliament was unable to reach consensus on any of the
contents proposed in the “official” agenda, because the participants found it
inappropriate, if not impossible, to design and approve any legislation in such
a rushed procedure, without going through an in-depth diagnosis of the cultural
issues in present-day Mexico. Accordingly, they demanded an extension to the
Parliament’s process.
• Another resolution proposed the continuation of the Alternative Parliament’s
discussion in regional fora and meetings which will take place during the next
months. Since there is a similar project of hosting regional meetings through
the Civil Society Agenda for the State Reformation, there is a possibility that
the programs will merge and the CSASR will benefit from the valuable support and
participation of the regional chapters of the INAH and INBA unions throughout
the country.
The large cultural movement generated by these initiatives will surely bring a
serious discussion between the civil society sectors and the governmental ones,
especially the Congress, and it could be the impetus for substantial changes in
cultural policies. Better, as one of the speakers put it, to create the real
cultural policy Mexico is still waiting to have. This would mean a real “state
policy”, meaning transversal coordination within the governmental agencies, a
revision of previous wrongly designed measures, like the non-inclusion of a
“Cultural Exception” clause in the trade agreements, or like the lack – and
recent dismantling – of any real tax incentive policies.
In the end, the idea behind most of the civil society’s proposals is to reach
consensus for a complete new foundation of the state through a new
constitutional design. And this is precisely what our objective will be during
the next few months and before the federal elections of 2006:
1) to undertake an in-depth diagnosis of the whole cultural sector, including
among others education, scientific research, the media, the status of the artist
and indigenous cultures and languages, etc. ;
2) to develop a draft new Constitution (this will be a general task carried on
by the CSASR, but the cultural sectors of the civil society will do their part
by designing the necessary Articles or paragraphs to be included in this draft);
and
3) to develop a draft for a new legislation, including most of the most relevant
federal laws enabling the changes we want to bring about.
This agenda will be presented to all the presidential candidates and candidates
to the Congress, for the 2006 elections, and will be pushed forward through
strong and well-coordinated lobbies.
It has become clear for a large part of Mexico’s population that the real change
everybody is hoping for will never come unless there is a radical reconstruction
of the governance structures of the country. For the NGOs and others this means
a concrete political action focused on the reformation of the State.
Coincidentally, the Zapatista rebels recently made a call to rally what they
call “the other campaign”, which has had powerful echoes and has disqualified
the “leftist” Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) as the real representative of
the people’s aspirations. This “other campaign” has many things in common with
the project of a State reformation and with the strife for a civil society-led
reconfiguration of the governance structures. The cultural sector is part of
this movement and could be the creator of its main tools and project designs: an
equitable and democratic society is one based on cultural liberties and on the
respect of cultural diversity.
5. Cultural Diversity: Encouraging
Human Development
The INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR
CULTURAL DIVERSITY celebrate its
6th Annual Meeting in Dakar.
By Ibrahima Seck, Coordinator
of INCD for West and Central Africa
The International Network for Cultural Diversity (ICCD) will hold its Sixth
Annual Meeting in Dakar, Senegal from November 17 to 20, 2005. At this occasion,
the INCD, the Senegalese Coalition for Cultural Diversity (CSCD) and the Network
of Socio-cultural Actors of Senegal (SNSCA) will organize an international
conference on the theme Cultural Diversity, Social Cohesion and Sustainable
Development: Cultural Diversity for Development, the Reduction of Poverty, the
Suppression of Inequalities and the Promotion of Empowerment.
The meeting in Dakar must contribute to the African Renaissance through
promotion of cultural diversity. This hope and this struggle are being developed
at the moment when globalization of the economy, primarily through the World
Trade Organization (WTO), brings homogenization of culture and the arts, a
phenomenon which leads to the loss of the cultural heritage of indigenous
peoples.
In effect, the meeting in Dakar is being held in the developing context of new
negotiations within WTO which is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary. These
negotiations suffer unfortunately from the pressure from certain large powers
which promote the ideology of homogenization of all sectors. This growing
propensity toward homogenization of culture must be denounced.
The meeting will be held at a moment when Africa, in adopting the New
Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), has decided to propel itself into
the global movement so that it can better profit economically from global
development.
Meanwhile, Africa does not limit itself only to the African continent. The
African Diaspora spreads into all the continents. More than 100 million people
worldwide of African ancestry, including often marginalized populations of
developed countries, have decided to join the struggle for the African
Renaissance, the triumph of the National Black Hymn and a Cultural Pan-Africanism,
and also for the attainment of the global cultural, social, economic, ecological
and political plan for all of Humanity. Representatives from the Diaspora will
also participate in the meeting in Dakar.
The meeting in Dakar is being held at a moment when UNESCO’s Convention on the
Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, is likely to
be adopted by the member countries. We will discuss how to promote its
ratification and implementation at the national level.
It will be held, finally, at a moment when INCD, which since its creation has
worked against the effects of globalization on the arts and culture, evolves
toward the sustenance of cultural development while supporting the
implementation of concrete cultural projects like the reform of the media, the
creation of music industry, audiovisual industry, the development of writers and
of local publishing, the promotion of film, the promotion of ethno-linguistic
groups and the development of traditional crafts, etc.
Thus, INCD is going to encourage governments to adopt a proactive position in
the elaboration of realistic cultural policies to create an environment
favouring local community cultural projects and the creation of innovative
cultural industries, while permitting artist-creators to sustain themselves from
their works.
The meeting in Dakar will bring together culture and the arts. Cultural
personalities will come from all continents to participate, discuss and define
strategies for a better world, a world of peace, of solidarity, of prosperity,
of social justice and of well being for all of humanity.
In Senegal, a National Committee of Organization has been put in place. This
committee has been working for several months for the success of the November
meeting in Dakar. We look forward to seeing all of you in November.
6. Events and Announcements
If we have missed your organization’s event, please contact the Secretariat at
incd@ccarts.ca for inclusion in the next
newsletter.
International Community Arts Conference
Community Arts Forum
October 21 -23, 2005
Belfast - Northern Ireland
www.caf.ie
Eighth Conference on European Culture
Centre for European Studies
October 26-29, 2005
Pamplona, Spain
http://www.unav.es/cee/pagina_9.html
International Network for Cultural Diversity
November 17 – 20, 2005
Dakar, Senegal
www.incd.net
World Summit on the Information Society
December, 2005
Tunis, Tunisia
www.itu.int/wsis/
Third World Summit on the Arts and Culture
June 14-17 2006
Newcastle Gateshead, England
www.ifacca.org
The INCD would like to thank the Government of
Canada for on-going financial support. We wish also to thank the Swedish
International Development Agency, the Government of France and the Flemish
community for providing important contributions to our work.
INCD/RIDC
804-130 Albert St
Ottawa ON K1P 5G4
Canada
Tel 1 613 238 3561 Ext 17
Fax 1 613 238 4849
incd@ccarts.ca
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