Cabo Verde becomes the 150th state to ratify the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions

Cabo Verde just joined the list of states that have ratified the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions on August 10th, 2021, thus becoming the 150th signatory state.

Through this ratification, which comes at a time when the cultural and creative sector has been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, Cabo Verde officially recognises the importance of the role and dual nature, both cultural and economic, of contemporary cultural expressions produced by artists and cultural professionals.

This is therefore a major step for the country’s cultural and creative industries (CCIs), since by adhering to this normative legal instrument, Cabo Verde commits itself to taking concrete policy measures to support the creation, production and distribution of cultural goods and services and to facilitate access to them. This Convention proposes a general framework for providing informed, transparent and participatory governance systems for culture that respond to the current challenges of the cultural economy.

The country will thereafter ensure the protection and promotion of CCIs not only from a legal standpoint, but will also stimulate capacity building, awareness raising and research in this field both nationally and internationally.

With this ratification, Cabo Verde continues its efforts to preserve its national heritage in the broadest sense, the country having already ratified the conventions relating to the safeguarding of its world heritage (1988), its living heritage (2016) and its underwater cultural heritage (2019). This result is the outcome of a long process initiated by the State Party with UNESCO through the Cape Verdean National Commission for UNESCO and the support of its regional office for West Africa and the Sahel.