Decision of the Intergovernmental Committee: 18.COM 7.A.6

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.5,
  3. Expresses its appreciation to Kenya for submitting, on time, its first report on the status of the element ‘Enkipaata, Eunoto and Olng'esherr, three male rites of passage of the Maasai community’, 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 building the capacities of the Maasai community, raising awareness about the element among youth and diverse stakeholders, documenting and inventorying the element with the involvement of youth, mapping associated cultural spaces, and ensuring community participation in the implementation and monitoring of safeguarding activities;
  5. Encourages the State Party to pursue its efforts to strengthen the involvement of educational institutions in the transmission of knowledge, to sustain the accessibility of cultural and natural spaces that are important for its practice, to support the Maasai community in its efforts to establish repositories of information on the element, including related digital tools developed, and to ensure continuous community participation in monitoring the safeguarding of the element;
  6. Recalls the importance of ensuring the free, prior, sustained and informed consent of communities regarding the documentation of its rituals performed, its storage and further dissemination;
  7. Notes that International Assistance was provided in 2016 to safeguard the element, and further encourages the State Party to continue its fundraising efforts and to develop synergies among various funding sources, with due consideration to balance the funding planned for the bearers of the element for knowledge transmission, and for other safeguarding expenditures;
  8. 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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