The meeting’s purpose was to invite experts to discuss a number of matters of fundamental importance related to the two lists to be established under the 2003 Convention, as well as examine and debate draft inscription criteria for those lists. Of the 30 experts, most were nationals of States Parties to the Convention, and 13 came from States Members of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The debates and results of the India meeting were intended to assist the Secretariat and the Committee in their work on the elaboration of criteria for inscription of ICH elements on the two lists of the Convention, sharpening arguments in favour of and opposed to several options concerning the nature of the lists and the relation between them. The experts were asked to discuss alternatives and to present the strongest possible arguments in favour of opposite positions in order to facilitate preparation of draft documents by the Secretariat for presentation to the Committee at its coming sessions in China and Japan. The draft documents that the Committee will consider have been improved substantially as a result of the lively debates and productive suggestions of the experts.

The meeting was made possible with the generous support of the Government of India, supplemented by a contribution from the Norwegian FIT for ICH that permitted funding of travel of participants from developing countries. The meeting also benefitted from the logistical support and facilitation of the Ministry of Culture of India and UNESCO’s New Delhi Office.

• Agenda (English|French)
• Background paper (English|French)
• Working document : Possible Criteria for the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding ( in preparation - in preparation - in preparation - in preparation|English|French)
• List of participants (English)
• Report of the meeting (English|French)