Held in Paris from 3 to 7 December 2012, the seventh session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage has completed its work, with more than 800 participants including experts, practitioners and government officials. The sixteen new periodic reports from States Parties were examined by the Committee and it provided enlightening information on the importance of strengthening national capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, in particular the training of government staff and NGOs for effective implementation of the Convention.
During this session, the Committee has also inscribed four elements on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and twenty seven elements on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It has also selected two safeguarding programmes for the Register of Best Practices and granted four international assistance requests totalling US$ 660,000.
A number of matters pertaining to the experience gained in implementing the referral option of the Representative List, the right scale or scope of an element, the procedure for extended inscription of an element that is already inscribed, and the use of the emblem of the Convention were also discussed by the Committee.
Following the invitation of the Government of Azerbaijan, the eight session of the Intergovernmental Committee will be held in Baku (Azerbaijan) from 2 to 8 December 2013.
Meeting:
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7th session of the Intergovernmental Committee (3 December 2012 – 7 December 2012)