Decision of the Intergovernmental Committee: 18.COM 7.a.4

The Committee,

  1. Having examined document LHE/23/18.COM/7.a,
  2. Recalling Chapter V of the Operational Directives and its Decision COM 10.a.4,
  3. Expresses its appreciation to Egypt for submitting, on time, its first report on the status of the element ‘Traditional hand puppetry’, inscribed in 2018 on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding;
  4. Takes note of the efforts undertaken by the State Party to safeguard the element, in particular by raising public awareness, providing inclusive training possibilities with a focus on younger generations, continuing documentation, promoting the element, and ensuring participatory safeguarding and its monitoring;
  5. Encourages the State Party to pursue its efforts to document the element and support its practice and availability to diverse audiences in various regions of Egypt, to build the capacities of its practitioners, to develop inclusive training possibilities, and to transmit all aspects of the element, including puppet making and voice-over techniques;
  6. Invites the State Party to strengthen the awareness of the social and cultural functions of the element, encourage its performances, including in traditional contexts, and promote the transmission of positive community values through the practice;
  7. Further invites the State Party to describe in its next report how communities, groups and individuals are involved in terms of gender roles in the practice of the element, including its audiences, and in the implementation of its safeguarding measures;
  8. Further encourages the State Party to continue its fundraising efforts, to carry on developing synergies among various funding sources, and to consider International Assistance provided by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund as a possible source of funding for the development and implementation of the safeguarding plan for the element;
  9. Requests that the Secretariat inform the State Party at least nine months prior to the next deadline about the required submission of its next report on the status of this element.

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