US embassy cable - 05PARIS6481

UNCLAS PARIS 006481 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FROM USMISSION UNESCO 
IO/UNESCO (COWLEY), L/UNA (OSBORN) 
 
E.O. 12958:     N/A 
TAGS: SCUL, ETRD, EU, CJAN, UNESCO 
SUBJECT:  USUNESCO: EXECUTIVE BOARD ACTION:  URGENT 
REQUEST FOR INSTRUCTIONS 
 
REF:  DRAFT CANADIAN DECISION FAXED TO L/UNA, 
9/19/05 
 
1.  This is an action request, see para 4. 
 
2.  On Friday morning, September 23, UNESCO 
Executive Board (EB) will act upon a draft decision 
(ref) that has important bearing for U.S. efforts to 
prevent adoption of the "preliminary" draft Cultural 
Diversity (CD) Convention, as currently drafted.  If 
adopted, the draft decision would effectively ensure 
the Convention will be considered as a "final" draft 
and facilitate fast track adoption at the UNESCO 
General Conference in October.   We disapprove of 
the draft EB decision, which currently has 51 co- 
signatures of the 58 EB members. 
 
3.  Adoption of such a decision would effectively 
modify retroactively the decision of the 32nd 
General Conference, which provided only for 
consideration of a preliminary report concerning a 
draft convention and a "preliminary" draft of such a 
convention for review at the October 2005 General 
Conference. 
 
4.  ACTION REQUESTED:  Please provide guidance and 
talking points to respond to this draft decision 
when it comes up Friday morning. 
 
5. Substantive text of the draft decision is as 
follows: 
 
Begin text. 
The Executive Board, 
 
1) Bearing in mind 32 C/Resolution 34, 
 
2) Recalling 169 EX/Decision, 3.7.2 and 171 
EX/Decision 19, 
 
3) Having examined document 172EX/20, 
 
4) Stressing that the governmental experts have 
fulfilled their mandate, namely "taking forward the 
preparation of the preliminary draft convention in 
order to report to the General Conference at its 
33rd session", in accordance with 169 EX/Decision 
3.7.2 
 
5) Takes note of the text of the preliminary draft 
adopted by the third session of the 
intergovernmental meeting of experts, held at 
headquarters from 25 May to 3 June, 2005, which will 
be examined by the General Conference at its 33rd 
session, in compliance with 32 C/Resolution 34, 
 
6) Recommends that the General Conference at its 
33rd session consider the said preliminary draft as 
a draft convention and adopt it as a UNESCO 
convention. 
End Text. 
 
OLIVER