Decision of the Intergovernmental Committee: 19.COM 6.a.13

The Committee,

  1. Having examined document LHE/24/19.COM/6.a,
  2. Recalling Chapter V of the Operational Directives and its Decisions 6.COM 8.9, 11.COM 9.b.3 and 15.COM 7.3,
  3. Expresses its appreciation to Iran for submitting, on time, its third report on the status of the element ‘Naqqāli, Iranian dramatic story-telling’, inscribed in 2011 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 enhancing public engagement, providing social security and economic empowerment for master bearers, strengthening gender balance among practitioners, engaging younger generations, including through education, training and job creation, and developing infrastructure for the element throughout the country;
  5. Encourages the State Party to pursue its efforts to support the bearers and practitioners of the element, further develop infrastructure for its practice and for the transmission of all aspects of the element, provide opportunities for the performance of Naqqāli, and find innovative ways to attract younger generations to learn and practise the element, while at the same time addressing the risk of decontextualization;
  6. Further encourages the State Party to continue to economically empower the bearers and practitioners of the element and to support sustainable economic activity related to the element;
  7. Also takes note of the improved viability of the element and the suggestion expressed by experts for a transfer of the element from the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

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