Decision of the Intergovernmental Committee: 19.COM 6.b

The Committee,

  1. Having examined document LHE/24/19.COM/6.b and its annexes,
  2. Recalling Articles 7, 29 and 30 of the Convention concerning reports by States Parties, and Chapter V of the Operational Directives,
  3. Further recalling Resolution 7.GA 10 as well as Decisions 13.COM 8 and 14.COM 8,
  4. Congratulates the forty-four States Parties in Africa that have submitted their reports for the 2024 reporting cycle and commends them for their efforts to complete the periodic reporting exercise;
  5. Expresses its appreciation to the Secretariat for ensuring an effective implementation of the periodic reporting exercise for the fourth consecutive year by providing concrete and comprehensive support to the States Parties concerned with their reporting process, and further commends the generous support provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and by Brazil, as well as the engagement of the Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Africa (CRESPIAF) for the implementation of relevant capacity-building and follow-up activities;
  6. Acknowledges the quantitative and qualitative analysis conducted for the reports from Africa, and welcomes the key findings from the analytical overview of the reports, as presented in the annexes of document LHE/24/19.COM/6.b;
  7. Takes note with interest of the common trends, challenges, opportunities and priority areas related to intangible cultural heritage as reported by the States Parties, as well as the different safeguarding approaches and methodologies adopted by them to implement the Convention, and looks forward to further detailed analyses of the reports, which will be presented to the twentieth session of the Committee in 2025;
  8. Recalls that the designations employed in the reports presented by the States Parties do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of either the Committee or UNESCO concerning a) the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, b) the legal status of its authorities, c) the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries, or d) references to specific historical events;
  9. Decides to submit to the General Assembly at its eleventh session a summary of the reports of States Parties on the implementation of the Convention and on the current status of elements inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity examined during the current session, in accordance with Article 30 of the Convention.

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