Paris, 10 May 2000 {No.2000-48} - The title "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" is set to become a feature of various places, performances and orally-transmitted works of exceptional value. The designation of cultural spaces and forms of cultural expression is to be made by UNESCO, whose World Heritage List featuring the planet's most remarkable cultural and natural sites is already well-known worldwide.

The idea for the project came from Jeema' el Fna Square in Marrakesh (Morocco) which is known for its storytellers, musicians and performers and was under threat from city development plans. Marrakesh residents, in fighting for its protection and winning their case, demonstrated the need for action on an international level for the protection of such cultural spaces and for popular and traditional forms of cultural expression.

Several sessions of UNESCO's General Conference and Executive Board addressed this problem and resulted in the creation of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity project. The oral and intangible heritage is defined as: "the totality of tradition-based creations of a cultural community expressed by a group or individuals and recognised as reflecting the expectations of a community in so far as they reflect its cultural and social identity; its standards are transmitted orally, by imitation or by other means. Its forms are, among others, language, literature, music, dance, games, mythology, rituals, customs, handicrafts, architecture and other arts. In addition to these examples, account will also be taken of traditional forms of communication and information".

UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura has stressed the project's importance on several occasions, most recently on May 5th when the project was presented to the Organization's Permanent Delegates. While recalling that the preservation and promotion of cultural diversity are among UNESCO's main missions and that the Organization has already been a pioneer in the area of tangible heritage, he stressed that cultural diversity cannot be assured solely by preserving vestiges of the past: "It also demands the conservation and promotion of what henceforth will be called the intangible heritage, which is a melting-pot for creative expression and a driving force for living cultures."

Mr Matsuura added: "The intangible heritage embodies an infinity of expressions bearing on the profound values of the life of a people and of a community: oral traditions, traditional knowledge, know-how in the creation of material cultures, value systems, representational art, languages."

After recalling that the programme would be financed by extra-budgetary funds and that several countries had already made a firm commitment to the project, the Director-General called for other voluntary contributions. On the question of UNESCO's assistance to Member States, he announced that aid - up to a maximum of 20,000 dollars per country - could be made available on submission of candidatures.

Each Member State may submit a single candidature every two years. Multi-national candidatures involving the communities of several Member States may be submitted in addition to the quota for each State. No candidature can be submitted to UNESCO without the irrefutable proof of the agreement of the community or the bearers concerned.

The proclamation of the first masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity will take place in June 2001. A nine-member jury - to be renewed every four years and which has been designated by the Director-General - is to hold an extraordinary meeting in June. Candidatures for cultural spaces or for cultural forms of expression may be submitted up to December 31, 2000, and will be examined by the jury in May 2001. The proclamation will then be made every two years.

The current jury members are: Hasan M. Al-Nabooah (United Arab Emirates), Juan Goytisolo (Spain), Ugne Karvelis (Lithuania), Richard Kurin (United States), J.H. Nketia (Ghana), Ralph Regenvanu (Vanuatu), Dawnhee Yim (Republic of Korea), Zulmar Yugar (Bolivia) and Munojat Yulchieva (Uzbekistan).