Advocacy

IMC advocacy is on behalf of key issues in music and is directed to intergovernmental and international organisations, and to national governments via IMC national members. Some advocacy is carried out in alliance with other international organisations.

Current or anticipated advocacy issues include:

• Ratification by UNESCO member countries of the UNESCO Conventions for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, and for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, and implementation of recommendations such as those for the development of cultural diversity within national borders,  support to cultural development in developing countries and rescue of threatened traditional musics. Advocacy for the former Convention includes collaboration with the International Network for Cultural Diversity and other NGOs.
• Promotion to national education and culture ministries of the Road Map for Arts Education, formulated at a UNESCO conference in Lisbon in 2006.  Collaborators include the International Society for Music Education. Promotion would take place mainly through IMC National Music Councils and member educational organisations.
• Defence of the right to freedom of expression in music, the first of the five musical rights at the base of IMC activities. In collaboration with the Copenhagen-based Freemuse human rights organisation.
• Promotion of Fair Music™, in support of an initiative by the Music Information Centre of Austria. Fair Music would, among other things, seek a more fair distribution of royalty income between artists and those who have used their copyright.
• Statement on Authors’ and Performers’ Rights