USUNESCO: EXECUTIVE BOARD ACTION: URGENT

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