Decision of the Intergovernmental Committee: 19.COM 9

The Committee,

  1. Having examined document LHE/24/19.COM/9 and its annexes,
  2. Recalling Articles 20(d) and 24.3 of the Convention,
  3. Further recalling Decision 18.COM 10, Resolution 10.GA 7, and Decision 19.COM 3.BUR 4,
  4. Notes with satisfaction that States Parties from Electoral Group V(a) continue to be the main beneficiaries of International Assistance from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, in accordance with Global Priority Africa, and welcomes the increasing number of requests submitted by Small Island Developing States;
  5. Congratulates the States Parties that have been granted International Assistance for the first time, and encourages States that have never received it to consider this mechanism of assistance in their efforts to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage present in their territories;
  6. Thanks the beneficiary States for the timely submission of their final or progress reports for projects benefiting from International Assistance under the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, and requests that beneficiary States with projects experiencing delays in their implementation take corrective measures to ensure the timely implementation of the projects and to respect their reporting obligations;
  7. Recalls that the designations employed in the International Assistance requests and related reports presented by the beneficiary 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, c) the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries, or d) references to specific historical events;
  8. Appreciates the variety of activities and scopes of the projects financed by the Fund as well as the impact that the assistance has had on the beneficiary States in terms of building their safeguarding capacities, and encourages these States to continue to ensure the sustainability and enhanced results of the projects;
  9. Expresses its appreciation for the work of the Secretariat in supporting the States Parties in the implementation and follow-up of International Assistance projects, and invites the Secretariat to pursue its efforts to strengthen, monitor, and evaluate the mechanism;
  10. Notes that requests to modify the budget allocations by more than 5 per cent and up to 10 per cent of the total amount of International Assistance projects are to be approved by the Chairperson of the Bureau of the Committee, if the assistance was initially granted by the Bureau;
  11. Further encourages States Parties to continue to take advantage of the technical assistance arranged by the Secretariat, which is intended to improve the quality of International Assistance requests, in particular for States Parties facing recurring difficulties in revising requests referred by the Bureau;
  12. Also encourages eligible States Parties without an element of intangible cultural heritage present on their territory inscribed on the Representative List (excluding elements proposed via multinational nominations) to apply to the Fund for assistance with preparing their first nomination file to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, bearing in mind the next deadline, which is on 31 March 2025, and each yearly deadline thereafter.

Top