For civil society (including arts and cultural actors, minorities etc.) the Convention is indeed relevant as the countries (state parties) shall endeavor to “create in their territory an environment which encourages individuals and social groups: • to create, produce, disseminate, distribute, and have access to their own cultural expressions, paying due attention to the special circumstances and needs of women as well as various social groups, including persons belonging to minorities and indigenous peoples; • to have access to diverse cultural expressions from within their territory as well as from other countries of the world. The Convention is equally clear on the right to freedom of expression. Article 2 of the Convention says that “cultural diversity can be protected and promoted only if human rights and fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of expression, information and communication, as well as the ability of individuals to choose cultural expressions, are guaranteed.” States must also promote "openness to other cultures of the world" and they must report on progress and challenges every four years according to a monitoring framework. They are equally obliged to include civil society in the implementation of the Convention as well as the reporting process. The current monitoring framework includes 11 areas of monitoring and at best the Convention can be considered a “global constitution for arts and culture” or “global traffic rules for cultural policies,” but as with traffic, not everyone obeys the rules and the implementation of the Convention is falling behind in many countries. The ENC countries are state parties to the Convention. The website https://en.unesco. org/creativity/governance/periodic-reports provides an overview of reports submitted. UNESCO consider these reports key instruments “for civil society to engage with government officials in assessing progress made to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions.” 10