From June 18 to 20, a delegation of coalition members from the IFCCD will participate in the 10th session of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. The delegation will reiterate its strong support for the adoption of an additional protocol to the Convention, while also calling for swift complementary action in the digital environment. In particular, it encourages the rollout of the implementation plan for Recommendations 2 to 11 from the Reflection Group and supports the prompt adoption of a general declaration by the Conference of Parties.
The recommendation to adopt an additional protocol to the 2005 Convention stems from a report published last December by 18 experts mandated to propose ways to improve the Convention’s implementation in the digital environment. In the report, they state that a protocol appears necessary “to complement, strengthen and enrich the principles, rights and obligations set out in [the 2005 Convention], in order to better achieve its objectives in the digital environment, especially in the face of growing challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI) systems.”
As early as last February, during the Intergovernmental Committee meeting tasked with reviewing the experts’ report, the IFCCD voiced its strong support for this ambitious recommendation. Rather than endorsing it immediately, however, the Parties requested access to a comparative analysis of the legal options studied by the Reflection Group, including the technical and legal dimensions of a potential protocol to enhance the Convention’s effectiveness online.
Having carefully reviewed the options, the IFCCD reaffirms its strong support for a protocol. It notes with disappointment that the current proposed timeline would delay its adoption to 2029—despite a scenario presented at the 18th session of the IGC showing that adoption could be possible by 2027. The IFCCD therefore urges Parties to pursue complementary short-term actions.
For the IFCCD, these actions are both necessary and mutually reinforcing. They would reaffirm the international consensus on the urgency of addressing the challenges posed by the digital environment. A declaration, in the short term, would serve to articulate clear principles and guidelines for implementing the Convention in this evolving context—especially with respect to transparency, the socio-economic conditions of artists, the uniqueness of human creativity, and the financial sustainability of cultural ecosystems—paving the way for an effective binding normative instrument in the coming years.
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