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Countries concerned with the protection of cultural identities had to gradually develop in their own legal system different principles. These principles are used to ensure the liberalization of trade in goods and services worldwide. The Jurisprudence of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) is extremely relevant for the development of the international trade system and for eliminating the obstacles imposed in the form of national measures that hide protectionism purposes. In this context, actors looking to protect their cultures from the complete elimination as a result of the trade in goods and services had to come up with new innovative ideas to do so especially after failing to include a cultural exception in the trade agreements that would allow the restriction of trade on the latter basis. For this reason, for instance, during that period, these actors focused on the protection and promotion of the concept of “cultural identity,” within the system. Yet, given the huge success that the DSB enjoyed as a result of the changes that were made since the 1990s, there was a need to change strategy. As such, the second generation of discourses revolved around the concept of “cultural diversity.” These actors expressly called for the establishment of specific regulations which took the form of soft law in the beginning. One could mention for instance the declaration on cultural diversity adopted in 2000; the declaration at the UNESCO Convention in 2001, and more binding law through the UNESCO Convention of 2005. The third generation of actors and strategists framed the concept of cultural diversity in the context of ensuring “the protection of human rights, fundamental freedoms, minorities’ rights, and even the early prevention of certain crimes against humanity – ethnic cleansing.” This new interpretation of the concept has multiple advantages as it stresses the diversity of “human expressions” which would also include along with the cultural expressions, other types of expressions such as “religious, ethnic, political, social, economic, and more generally ideological as well as intellectual expressions.” In the chapter, “China Meets Hollywood at WTO: Janus Faces of Freedom: Standards of Right and Wrong Between National and International Moralities,” the author Christophe Germann examined this matter while analyzing the outcomes of the adoption of each strategy by the different actors involved. Not only that but the author has also examined the position of the European Union (EU) concerning the implementation of cultural agreements such as the UNESCO convention. It has been said, that “the UNESCO Convention has the great potential to mobilize, inspire, and stimulate law- and policy-makers in search of innovative solutions to address their constituencies’ core societal concerns pertaining to questions of identities and diversity of human expressions.” Indeed, it is relevant in this context to stress on the importance of education and particularly human rights education for ensuring the respect of the diversity of cultural expressions.
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