UNESCO adopts strategy against cultural invasion

Given choice of defending Hollywood's interests or joining an international consensus, the US stood almost alone at UNESCO on Thursday in opposing a new convention on cultural diversity designed to combat the homogenizing effect of cultural globalization.

The convention, the result of two years' heated and occasionally bitter negotiations, was adopted at UNESCO's Paris headquarters by 148 votes in favor, two (the US and Israel) against and four -- Australia, Nicaragua, Honduras and Liberia -- abstaining.

Even though the convention fell short of the hopes of its original sponsors, Canada and France, its adoption by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, was hailed as an important step toward protecting threatened cultures, particularly in developing countries.

The Bush administration argued that it could be interpreted as authorizing governments to undermine the rights of minorities and control both culture and the free trade in ideas and information. Under the convention, governments will be permitted to use subsidies and quotas to promote their culture and, implicitly, to limit the access of Hollywood movies to their markets.

Speaking Thursday's vote, Louise Oliver, the US ambassador to UNESCO, said the US was the world's most culturally diverse country, but that it feared the convention "could undermine, rather than promote, cultural diversity." She added, "This instrument remains too flawed, too open to misinterpretation and too prone to abuse for us to support."

Most of Washington's allies disagreed. Britain's ambassador to UNESCO, Timothy Craddock, speaking for the EU, said, "This is a great day for UNESCO." And, without mentioning the US, he noted: "With one country, we have agreed to disagree on this issue."

Earlier, France's culture minister, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, said that at a time of growing religious fundamentalism, the convention underlined the importance of cultural diversity for artists and national pride as well as peace. "It's a victory for consciousness-raising," he said.

Unlike US delegation, which tried not to appear too identified with Hollywood's interests, Donnedieu de Vabres pointed to what he considered the current asymmetry of cultural power.

"Hollywood movies account for 85 percent of movie tickets sold around the world," he said. "In the US, only 1 percent of shown movies come from outside the US."

Canada France won broad support for the convention partly by blurring the question of its impact on trade liberalization or future trade talks. For instance, while the convention states that it cannot be interpreted as "modifying rights and obligations of the parties under any other treaties to which they are parties," it also requires governments to take it into account in international negotiations.