More than 600 participants attended the fifth General Assembly which concluded today with subtantial resolutions. Starting from 2015, all nominations will be evaluated by a single Evaluation Body of twelve members appointed by the Committee, six experts representing States Parties non-Members of the Committee and six representatives of accredited NGO, taking into consideration equitable geographic representation and various domains of intangible cultural heritage. The General Assembly furthermore decided to allocate more than 4 million US dollars from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund to support safeguarding efforts of States Parties.
General Assembly having accredited 22 NGOs, the Committee can now count on altogether on 178 accredited NGOs to advise it on diverse issues. Twelve Members of the Committee have been newly elected: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bulgaria, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Hungary, India, Mongolia, Republic of Korea, Saint Lucia and Turkey.