VIRTUAL FORUM ON CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE HEMISPHERE

CIVIL SOCIETY'S REFLECTIONS ON THE FIRST MINISTERIAL MEETING

DECLARATION
OF THE PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS FROM THE CULTURAL MILIEU OF THE AMERICAS

We acknowledge and celebrate the efforts of the Organization of American States, the Colombian Ministry of Culture and the Convenio Andrés Bello to include civil society in meetings such as this one, whose purpose is to define the inter-American cultural policy agenda. We believe that for future meetings, invitations to civil society, financial support for their attendance and space for their participation should be broadened so that their contributions may be stated in the documents that guide public policies on culture.

We support the general ideas and spirit of the Declaration and Plan of Action of Cartagena de Indias and propose the following recommendations:

1. Cultural goods and services should not be considered as commodities whose only value is commercial. The equitable flow of cultural goods and services among countries of the Americas affirms cultural identities.

2. Ministries of Culture and Foreign Trade of the countries of the Americas must ensure that by signing Free Trade Agreements, they are not jeopardizing the ability to independently formulate public policies on culture.

3. Civil society representatives in attendance express the strong will to participate in the Inter-American Cultural Policy Observatory, which we view as the institution responsible for guaranteeing the sustainability and consistency of cultural policies, through follow up and re-assessment. We also believe that civil society should be represented in the Inter-American Committee on Culture.

4. The relationship between culture and communication, as well as between culture and education, considered in the twentieth point of the Declaration, should be highlighted in the same manner as the relationship between culture and sport.

5. The eighth point of the Declaration, referring to intellectual property, both individual and collective, should be taken up in the Action Plan between points seven and eight.

We request that the document entitled "Civil society's reflections", as well as the "Declaration of professional organizations from the cultural milieu of the Americas" endorsed by eighty-two professional cultural organizations from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia and Mexico and presented by the Coalition for Cultural Diversity, be included as an annex to the final documents of the "First Inter-American Meeting of Ministers of Culture and Highest Appropriate Authorities" held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, July 12 - 13, 2002.

Finally, we invite the Ministers of Culture and Highest Appropriate Authorities to strengthen the participation of civil society in processes associated to the formulation of cultural policies and promote dialogue, exchange and cooperation between the cultures and regions of the Americas, without exception.

Octavio Arbeláez
Civil Society's Coordinator
Network of Latin-American and Caribbean Cultural Agents

Kelsy Koch
Cisneros Foundation - Caracas, Venezuela

Édgar Bolívar
Consejo Nacional de Cultura - Colombia

Gloria Triana
Colombia en el Planeta - Colombia

Néstor López
Network of Latin-American and Caribbean Cultural Agents

Jaime González
Secretariat of Culture - Cundinamarca, Colombia

Felipe José Lindoso
Camara Brasileira do Livro

Gabriel Ernesto Larrea
Mexican Artists Association

Marta Elena Bravo
Colombian National University

Claudia Norman
Arts International - New York, E.E.U.U.

Nitis Jacon de Araujo Moreira
President - Mercosur Cultural Network

Louise Vachon
Coalition for Cultural Diversity - Canadá

María Pía Mogollón
Museums representative - Colombian Cultural National Council