Ministers, personalities from various organizations (such as Irina Bokova, DG of UNESCO or Michaelle Jean, SG de l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie) and countries (including EBU President, Jean Paul Philippot) and artists such as Jaco Van Dormael, Nabil Ayouch, Youssou N’Dour, Abderrahmane Sissako gathered in Mons on October 25 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the UNESCO convention on Cultural Diversity.
The International Forum of Mons , held at the local conference center, was the closing moment of a week end fully dedicated to the Cultural Diversity, to the Cultural Exception and at the International Treaty that safeguards these values.
It started on Friday with the world congress of FIDCC (International Federation of the Coalition for Cultural Diversity) that elected its new president on Saturday, and ended with the Sunday ministerial level event on the UNESCO Convention.
Why such an event now and in Mons ? Because there is an insidious temptative to circumvent the principles of the Cultural exception and the Cultural diversity convention with the excuse of the arrival of the Internet.