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Message on Culture in Development to the Coalitions for Cultural Diversity
Vienna, January 25 - 27, 2007
We, the representatives of some 40 non-governmental European, African and Latin American cultural and development organizations, participating in the International Conference "European Network: Culture and Development" taking place in Vienna between the 25th and the 27th of January 2007, are very greatly satisfied that the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions will enter into force on March18, 2007, less than 18 months after its adoption.
We wish to express our deep gratitude to the national Coalitions for Cultural Diversity and to the International Liaison Committee of the Coalitions, and sincerely congratulate them for the essential contribution they made to the fast ratification process of the Convention by 43 Member States, at this date.
Our organizations consider that the implementation of the Convention will be a major contribution to the international cooperation in the field of culture, and that it will make possible for countries from the South to maintain and develop their particularly rich diversity of cultural expressions.
We are convinced that culture plays an important role in sustainable development, and also that intercultural dialogue and exchanges are fundamental to the cohesion of societies both in the North and in the South.
We therefore urge the national Coalitions for Cultural Diversity, especially those from countries in the North, and the International Liaison Committee, to take the decision that one of the priorities of their mandate is to endeavor to obtain, through all necessary means, that national governments of State parties:
- will actively contribute through their cultural policies and their international development cooperation programs to the promotion and the protection of cultural diversity in countries from the South, as they will be committed themselves to do so by implementing articles 12 to 18 of the Convention, and
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