PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release

October 14, 2002 – Cape Town. The International Network for Cultural Diversity (INCD) yesterday concluded three days of meetings at the Centre for the Book.  186 delegates from 37 countries organized their discussions around the theme Fostering Cultural Diversity and Development: local, national and global strategies and this afternoon presented the Cape Town Declaration to the ministers of culture, the International Network on Cultural Policy (INCP), the opening day of their meeting.

The INCD was congratulated by the ministers of culture for the work accomplished over the past year.  Ministers agreed civil society has provided significant momentum towards the common objectives of the INCD and the INCP.

The results of the meeting are summarized in the Cape Town Declaration, which states: “All of the world’s citizens are impoverished when they are denied the opportunity to experience the full richness of the diversity of all communities.”

The INCD conference focussed on both the inter-relatedness of cultural diversity and sustainable development as well as the draft Convention on Cultural Diversity, a global initiative to implement a treaty that would provide a permanent legal foundation for government measures that support cultural diversity. This text seeks to counter the destructive effects of globalization and trade liberalization on cultural diversity. Steven Shrybman, Canadian international trade lawyer and author of the Convention, said in his presentation “we need not only contain the absolute rule of trade regimes but to extend the power of human and cultural rights.”

Delegates committed themselves to advocate on behalf of their communities for policies that will ensure that development projects will not imperil cultural expression or cultural exchange. 

The INCD elected an International Steering Committee, with new members coming from South Africa, Senegal, Brazil and the Philippines. The Committee was given the mandate to prepare a new governance structure, as the Network will move towards greater regional involvement, including plans for regional meetings and working groups on specific topics related to both the Convention on Cultural Diversity and the role of culture in development. Over the coming months they will also implement a new multi-pronged communications strategy.

The INCD thanks the host country, South Africa, as well as the governments of Canada, Sweden, Mexico and Croatia, for their generous support. Thanks are also given to the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Prince Claus Fund and the ILO. The INCD will meet in 2003 in Croatia.