The Committee,
- Having examined document LHE/22/17.COM/6.a Rev.,
- Recalling Chapter V of the Operational Directives and its Decisions 8.COM 7.a.1 and 13.COM 7.b.1,
- Expresses its appreciation to Azerbaijan for submitting, on time, its second report on the status of the element ‘Chovqan, a traditional Karabakh horse-riding game in the Republic of Azerbaijan’, inscribed in 2013 on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding;
- Takes note of the efforts undertaken by the State Party to safeguard the element, in particular through developing opportunities and facilities for practice and transmission of the element, including training programs and competitions, sustaining janghi music playing, favoring participatory monitoring of safeguarding, and succeeding to increase the number of practitioners and to raise awareness, including among youth, about the element and traditional games as intangible cultural heritage;
- Further takes note of the efforts of community members, organizations and institutions to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, by implementing safeguarding measures to the extent possible, and further inventorying the element in four regions;
- Encourages the State Party to pursue its efforts to support the practice and transmission of the element, through developing policy and legal frameworks, sustaining training, holding competitions, raising awareness, in particular among youth, and developing long-term breeding of Karabakh horses as planned in the previous safeguarding plan;
- Invites the State Party to consider possibilities for engaging broader communities of the element in monitoring its safeguarding, including audience, teachers and craftspeople of crafts associated to the element;
- Requests that the Secretariat inform the State Party at least nine months prior to the deadline of 15 December 2025 about the required submission of its next report on the status of this element.