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

The Committee,

  1. Having examined document LHE/22/17.COM/6.a Rev.,
  2. Recalling Chapter V of the Operational Directives and its Decision 12.COM 11.a.5,
  3. Expresses its appreciation to Türkiye for submitting, on time, its first report on the status of the element ‘Whistled language’, inscribed in 2017 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 through training children and youth, engaging bearers and practitioners in transmitting the element, continuing its inventorying, promoting the element through media, publications and documentaries, raising public awareness, sustaining regional development, and involving diverse sectors and stakeholders in the safeguarding;
  5. Further takes note of the efforts of community members, organizations and institutions to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, by holding online activities and attracting enlarged audiences to the safeguarding of the element;
  6. Encourages the State Party to pursue its efforts to transmit the element to younger generations through education, training of trainers for teaching whistled language, supporting practitioners, raising awareness about the element in the general public, and using new technologies for the benefit of intergenerational transmission;
  7. Invites the State Party to ensure community participation in envisaging and preparing safeguarding measures intended to transmit the element beyond bearer communities, in order to prevent eventual decontextualization and misappropriation;
  8. 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.

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