Andean Foreign Ministers create the Andean Council of Ministers of Culture in order to promote the CAN’s cultural heritage and industries

Lima, Aug. 23, 2011. The Andean Community Member Countries decided yesterday to create the Andean Council of Ministers of Culture and of Cultures, thereby endowing the CAN with a coordinating mechanism at the ministerial level that will take responsibility for formulating proposals to promote cultural industries, give due value to the material and intangible cultural heritage and disseminate different cultural expressions, among other things.

In the context of the meeting of the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, held this Monday in Lima, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru fulfilled the Andean Strategic Agenda, one of whose priorities is Community action in the sphere of culture and the cultural heritage.

Pursuant to the Community legislation approved yesterday, the Andean Council of Ministers of Culture and of Cultures will be made up of the Ministers of Culture or Cultures of the Andean Community Member Countries, who will accredit an alternate representative to act in their absence.  The Andean Community General Secretariat will serve as the Council’s Technical Secretariat.

Its functions are to propose subregional strategies for the development and promotion of cultural industries and for the proper management, due valuing and social appropriation of the material and intangible cultural heritage, and the promotion of mechanisms for cooperation and complementary action on and promotion and dissemination of cultural expressions and strategies aimed at recognizing and enhancing the involvement of native indigenous peoples and peoples of African descent in promoting and safeguarding their cultural rights.  

This Council will also be responsible for fostering Andean Community cooperation and coordination with bodies and institutions of the United Nations (UNESCO, SEGIB, OEI, etc), the OAS and UNASUR, among others.

In order to implement this Community legislation, the Andean Foreign Ministers ordered the establishment, under the coordination of the Andean Council of Ministers of Culture and of Cultures, of the Andean Committee on Cultural Industries and the Andean Committee on the Material and Intangible Cultural Heritage, which will be added to the existing Andean Committee to Fight Against the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Objects.