Paris, September 21 {No.2000-91}- UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura this morning opened the first meeting of the Experts Committee on the Strengthening of UNESCO's Role in Promoting Cultural Diversity in the Context of Globalization, at Organization Headquarters.

The Director-General first pointed out that "the idea that cultural goods and services should be fully recognized and treated as being not like any other form of merchandise, and that their free exchange should not be subject to market rules" was already present in the report of the World Commission on Culture and Development, Our Creative Diversity, and that this idea was one of the main accomplishments of the Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies for Development (Stockholm).

Mr Matsuura also referred to the resolution approved by UNESCO's General Conference at its last session, which underlined the need for the Organization and its Member States to promote cultural diversity in the context of globalization, particularly in view of the opening of a new round of multilateral trade negotiations, and which recommended the creation of an Experts Committee to this end.

Concerning the Committee's mandate, Mr Matsuura stressed that it needed to be considered "within the context of UNESCO's own vocation, goals and means", but that it was also necessary to "consider the existence, action and place of other bodies to make it easier to see what UNESCO can and must add, perhaps in cooperation with other bodies." He continued: "As the only organization within the United Nations family to hold a cultural mandate, UNESCO must play a leading role with regard to all that interests or concerns culture at the international level. It remains to be determined how it can intervene in the most efficient way."

Regarding globalization, the Director-General said: "Despite the fact that it gives humanity exceptional opportunities for greater communication and the freer exchange of ideas and goods, it also carries grave risks such as the deepening of inequalities, the homogenization of cultures and lifestyles, the loss of identities or, on the contrary, their radicalization." He continued: "It is UNESCO's duty to react, to offer alternatives and to mobilise the entire international community."

Mr Matsuura expressed the hope that the Experts Committee would, as early as tomorrow, come up with a series of proposals that he could transmit to the next session of the Organization's Executive Board (9-25 October 2000) and to the second Round Table of Ministers of Culture which will take place in Paris this December. He added: "Your debates, your ideas, your experiences will also probably be very useful to Member States for the establishment or reform of their cultural policies, which are areas of crucial importance for the future."