One of the most important tasks of the German ITI centre is commitment to the free development of the performing arts and the preservation of the diversity of their forms of expression. The issue of cultural diversity – which at the international level has for years been an important point of reference in cultural policy debates – increasingly affects German cultural policy as well as the work and future of German theatres. In the last 15 years, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been successful at increasing pressure on nation states to dismantle so-called trade barriers and to further privatise public goods by concluding trade agreements such as TTIP. This has also affected the preservation of cultural diversity.  

In various position papers, statements and reports with recommendations from civil society organisations, the German ITI centre explicitly advocates for cultural diversity. The German ITI centre represents the ITI World Organisation, which is the only international theatre NGO with the right to speak at the intergovernmental negotiation sessions of UNESCO at the meetings of the Intergovernmental Committee on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions of UNESCO. 

The German ITI centre is involved in both the Federal Coalition for Cultural Diversity, which is coordinated by the German UNESCO Commission, and in the German Cultural Council.  

Further Information:  

Forderungen des ITI zu den TTIP-Verhandlungen (2014) 

Global Report 2018 (periodic national report of UNESCO) on the implementation of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions  

UNESCO Report of Civil Society Organisations (2017), with the cooperation of ITI  

UNESCO Report of Civil Society Organisations (2019), with the cooperation of ITI  

Reader Kulturelle Vielfalt  of the Gemeinsames Europasekretariat deutscher Kultur-NGOs (2005), released by the German ITI centre 

Kulturelle Vielfalt in der Diskussion (2015), continuation of the reader from 2005