Decision of the Intergovernmental Committee: 17.COM 6.B

The Committee,

  1. Having examined document LHE/22/17.COM/6.b Rev. 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 Decision 12.COM 10, Resolution 7.GA 10, Decision 13.COM 8, Decision 14.COM 8, as well as document LHE/19/14.COM/8,
  4. Underlining the importance of periodic reporting on the implementation of the Convention and on the current status of elements inscribed on the Representative List, which serves as a key monitoring tool for States Parties to measure the progress of implementing safeguarding measures at the national level and plan the future direction of safeguarding,
  5. Expresses its satisfaction with the implementation of the first cycle of periodic reporting in the Europe region and welcomes the positive results achieved from the 2022 cycle, especially the significantly high rate of submission of the reports by States Parties;
  6. Congratulates the forty-two States Parties in Europe that have submitted their reports for the 2022 reporting cycle and commends them for their efforts to complete the periodic reporting exercise;
  7. Expresses its appreciation to the Secretariat for ensuring an effective implementation of the periodic reporting exercise for the second consecutive year by providing concrete and comprehensive support to the States Parties concerned in their reporting process through capacity-building activities and ongoing follow-up;
  8. Acknowledges the quantitative and qualitative analysis that has been conducted for the reports from the Europe region, welcomes the key findings from the analytical overview of the reports, as presented in the annexes of document LHE/22/17.COM/6.b Rev.;
  9. Takes note with interest of the common trends, challenges, opportunities and priority areas related to intangible cultural heritage as reported by 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 eighteenth session of the Committee in 2023 and contribute to the reflection year in 2026;
  10. 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 the Committee nor UNESCO concerning a) the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, b) the legal status of its authorities or c) the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries;
  11. Underlines the importance of ensuring the compatibility of intangible cultural heritage practices with existing international human rights instruments and environmental sustainability and encourages reporting States Parties to further engage in a participatory dialogue on these subjects, particularly involving young people;
  12. Decides to submit to the General Assembly at its tenth 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 examined during the current session in accordance with Article 30 of the Convention.

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