Decision of the Intergovernmental Committee: 18.COM 7.b

The Committee,

  1. Having examined document LHE/23/18.COM/7.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 Resolution GA 10 as well as Decisions 13.COM 8 and 14.COM 8,
  4. Congratulates the eighteen States Parties in the Arab States that have submitted their reports for the 2023 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 third 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;
  6. Acknowledging the quantitative and qualitative analysis that has been conducted for the reports from the Arab States region, welcomes the key findings from the analytical overview of the reports, as presented in the annexes of document LHE/23/18.COM/7.b Rev.;
  7. Takes note with interest 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 nineteenth session of the Committee in 2024;
  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 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;
  9. 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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