http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00328

Chengdu International Conference on Intangible Cultural Heritage in Celebration of the Tenth Anniversary of UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage

Chengdu, China, 14 to 16 June 2013

Practical information
The Conference will be held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Chengdu. It will take place in conjunction with the Fourth International Festival of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Chengdu. Languages of the Conference will be English, French and Chinese.

Ten years have passed since the adoption of the 2003 Convention, including seven years of actual implementation at the international level. This high-level conference will look back on that decade in order to reflect on the Convention’s function, role and value while also looking forward to its future. The aim is to reflect profoundly on the life of the 2003 Convention so far, providing a strategic opportunity to discuss the intentions of its framers, to identify its achievements thus far and to define priorities for the future.

Scientific and legal experts and States Parties officials who took part actively in the preparation of the 2003 Convention will participate in a series of plenary round-table panels seeking to look backward and forward at the same time, focussing particularly on the challenges facing the Convention today:

• Achievements of the Convention: changing the discourse of ICH and implanting new concepts
• Inventorying and listing
• Parallel universes: intellectual property, world heritage and cultural goods and services
• Safeguarding experiences in the States Parties
• Open questions and future directions

Do you want to learn more about the conference?

Please see the concept note and preliminary programme: English|French

Do you want to learn more about the history of the 2003 Convention?

Please see the following meetings between 1973 and 2003 that led up to the Convention:

• History and precursors 1973-2000
• Drafting the text of the Convention 2001-2003

The Conference will be held under the patronage of the Chinese Ministry of Culture, Sichuan Provincial People’s Government, Chinese National Commission for UNESCO and UNESCO, and will be organized by the Chengdu Municipal People’s Government, China National Centre for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage, Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture, International Training Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (CRIHAP) and UNESCO Section for Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Contacts

• Beate Strøm
  Section for Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO
  7, place du Fontenoy
  75352 Paris 07, France
  Tel: +33 (0)1 45 68 47 39
  e-mail: b.strom@unesco.org

• Yuan Jie
  International Training Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the Auspices of UNESCO (CRIHAP)
  Jia 1 Huixin Beili, 100029 Chaoyang District, Beijing, P.R. China
  Tel: +86-10-6496-6526 ; fax: +86-10-6496-9281
  e-mail: benyuanjie@126.com

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00332

© UNESCO

The seventh annual regional meeting of experts on Intangible Cultural Heritage in South East Europe will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 27-28 May 2013. The event, organized by the Sofia Regional Center on Intangible cultural heritage in South-East Europe, with the support of the UNESCO Regional Office for Culture and Science in Europe (Venice, Italy).

The regional encounter is a follow-up to the previous meetings (Arbanassi, Bulgaria, June 2007; Safranbolu, Turkey, May 2008; Zagreb, Croatia, April 2009, Râmnicu-Vâlcea, Romania, May 2010; Belgrade, Serbia, May 2011; Athens, Greece, May 2012) which have been organized to enhance a common understanding of opportunities and challenges linked to the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage in the region, such as: national inventory policies, the process of revitalization, the management of sustainable cultural tourism, the role and involvement of the local communities, the transnational dimension of intangible cultural heritage, as well as training and capacity-building.

The annual meetings serve as a regional platform for sharing knowledge and good practices, and stimulating a collective reflection on the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage as a key asset of South-East European cultural diversity.

The meeting in Sofia will focus its debates on three topics: the status of implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the respective countries of the region; cases and best practices in promoting intangible cultural heritage as a driver for local sustainable development (tourism, private/public partnerships); and proposals for common action in the areas of training and capacity-building. The meeting will also allow experts to discuss, more specifically, the various ways of integrating intangible heritage in tourism and development policies, while fostering the responsible and ethical use of these living assets and forms of expressions.

Documents

• Draft agenda: English
• List of participants: English

For more information, click here.

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00329

A capacity-building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level is being held in Cap Haïtien (Haiti) from 13 to 17 May. These sessions are organized within the framework of a regional capacity-building programme in the Caribbean funded by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund thanks to the generous contributions of Norway and count with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Haitian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO and the National Bureau of Ethnology.

For five days, about twenty participants from the North Department of Haiti will be receiving intensive training on the objectives, key concepts and international mechanisms of the 2003 Convention as well as on the national obligations of States Parties. Conducted by two members of the network of UNESCO-trained experts, Ms Soledad Mujica (Peru) and Ms Claudine Augée Angoué (Gabon), the workshop also aims at stimulating greater coordination of the different stakeholders working in this field, both at the institutional and the civil society level, by emphasizing the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage as a means through which development can find appropriate and sustainable ways.

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00327

A capacity-building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level is being organized in Les Cayes (Haiti) from 7 to 10 May. This is the first activity specifically benefiting Haiti within the regional capacity building project in the Caribbean, supported by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund thanks to the generous voluntary contribution of Norway.

For four days, about twenty participants from the South Department of Haiti will be receiving intensive training on the objectives, key concepts and international mechanisms of the 2003 Convention as well as on the national obligations of States Parties. Conducted by two members of the network of UNESCO-trained experts, Ms Soledad Mujica (Peru) and Ms Claudine Augée Angoué (Gabon), the workshop also aims at stimulating greater coordination of the different stakeholders working in this field, both at the institutional and the civil society level, by emphasizing the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage as a means through which development can find appropriate and sustainable ways.

Documents

• Agenda: French
• List of participants: French

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00324

Results achieved in the field of ICH safeguarding in Southern Africa since 2009, revolve primarily around to specific extrabudgetary programmes financed by Flanders, notably:

• A series of pilot projects in community-based intangible heritage inventorying on a grassroots-level in six selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia and Uganda), completed in 2011; and
• Strengthening national capacities for implementing the Convention for the Safeguarding of ICH in 4 selected Southern African countries (Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe) completed in 2012.
  

Based on the results achieved through these projects as well as the specific ICH component of MDGF Culture and Development Programme implemented in Namibia, the Southern African ICH experts experimented with the development of the specific national ICH “trainers” expertise in a workshop held in Waterberg, Namibia from 8 to 19 April 2013 .

As an immediate follow up, the Southern African ICH experts in cooperation with the UNESCO offices in Harare and Windhoek, agreed on conducting a consultation meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe from 30 April to 2 May. The objective of this meeting is twofold:
1. Develop a sub-regional ICH strategy for Southern Africa;
2. Discuss the concept of national capacity development based on the model of the April workshop held in Namibia and seek the possibility of its replication in all Southern African States Parties to the Convention.

For detailed information on this activity, please click here.

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00321

This Second Community-based Inventorying of Intangible Cultural Heritage Workshop is organized within the framework of the project entitled ‘Strengthening capacity building for the promotion and implementation of intangible cultural heritage in Timor-Leste’. This project is part of the regional capacity building efforts in the Asia-Pacific Region and is funded by the Japan Funds-in-Trust for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The workshop is intended to equip community members and key stakeholders from Timor-Leste with the basic knowledge and skills to design, facilitate and implement a community-based inventorying process tailored to their particular circumstances.

For more info, click here.

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00319

A capacity-building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level is being organized in Guatemala from 15 to 17 April. This is the first activity specifically benefiting Guatemala within the regional capacity building project in Central America, supported by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund thanks to the generous voluntary contribution of Spain.

For three days, representatives from the Ministry of Culture and Sport and cultural managers from different areas will be receiving intensive training on the objectives, key concepts and international mechanisms of the 2003 Convention as well as on the national obligations of States Parties. Conducted by two members of the network of UNESCO-trained experts, Ms Soledad Mujica (Peru) and Ms Eva Martínez (Honduras), these sessions will provide a comprehensive overview of this international normative instrument and the operational directives for its application which may serve as a framework to reflect on a national strategy for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage which integrates the views and aspirations of the different Guatemalan actors involved in this field.

Documents

• Agenda: Spanish
• List of participants: Spanish

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00315

© UNESCO Almaty Office

Three years after ratifying the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, Tajikistan is moving forward to strengthen its capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. Implemented within UNESCO’s global capacity-building strategy, a two-year project was launched in 2012 thanks to the generous support of Norway. The aim is to build a critical mass of experience and knowledge, both in government institutions and in civil society, so that Tajikistan will be equipped with an appropriate sustainable framework for safeguarding intangible heritage and implementing the Convention on a long-term basis.

The project entails a long-term, multi-faceted approach including the revision of policies and legislation, the strengthening of institutional infrastructures, the development of inventory frameworks and methods that fully involve the communities concerned, and the reinforcement of technical skills required to safeguard intangible cultural heritage. Its first stage focused on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level, and a five-day workshop held in August 2012 focused on core concepts of the Convention, while providing the participants with a thorough understanding of the obligations of all stakeholders at the national level.

The international mechanisms of the Convention are at the core of the current stage of the project. Governmental, academic and educational institutions, representatives from craft and traditional music communities, and members of civil society have met in a workshop organised by UNESCO Almaty and the Tajik National Commission for UNESCO from 10 to 13 April 2013 in Dushanbe to acquire the knowledge required to elaborate nominations for inscription on the Lists of the Convention, proposals for Best Safeguarding Practices and requests for International Assistance. The workshop was facilitated by Ms Sabira Soltongeldieva and Mr Ilya Fetisov.

Documents

• Agenda of the workshop: English
• List of participants: English

For more information, please consult the webpage of UNESCO Almaty.

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00320

A seminar entitled ‘UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention’ was organized by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport of Brunei Darussalam and UNESCO on 10 April, 2013. The Forum brought together representatives from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Law, along with district officials, local representatives, academics from the University of Brunei Darussalam, local NGOs, and experts and policy makers in the field of culture, in order to discuss the ways for the safeguarding and promoting of the country’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). The forum also provided further information on UNESCO’s implementation strategy for the ICH Convention and efforts to strengthen internal networks amongst different levels of stakeholders.

For more information, click here.

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00322

The implementation of the capacity building strategy for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in Namibia is moving to its second phase. After a series of successful community-based ICH inventorying exercises carried out within the broader framework of the MDGF Culture and Development programme, the UNESCO Office in Windhoek and the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sports and Culture (MYNSSC) trained a group of 20 local trainers to ensure sustainability of the ICH inventorying and safeguarding efforts. A national Training of Trainers workshop was held from 8 to 19 April 2013 at Waterberg, Namibia.

20 participants, selected from different parts of the country, focused on specific aspects of ICH identification, inventorying and community interactions. In addition, a component on participatory training methods has been a part of the workshop programme, facilitated by two Southern African intangible cultural heritage training experts, Mr Stephen Chifunyise of Zimbabwe and Mr Lovemore Mazibuko of Malawi.

The experience of this pilot workshop in Namibia and its possible replication within the region will be discussed during the upcoming workshop “Southern African Regional ICH strategy, focus on the national Training of Trainers processes” to be organised by UNESCO Windhoek Office in Harare, Zimbabwe from 30 April to 2 May 2013.

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00323

A Workshop on Community-based Inventorying of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) was held in Phuntsholing, a border town in southern Bhutan, from 2 to 9 April 2013. Funded the Japanese Funds-in-Trust, this Workshop focused on; i) community involvement in inventorying cultural resources, ii) importance of cultural protocol in community-based inventorying, iii) a hands-on experience in preparing field work.

For more information, please click here.

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00259

An intensive five-day capacity-building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level is being held in Tegucigalpa, Honduras from 18 to 22 March. The meeting inaugurates the regional project for strengthening capacities in this field that will be implemented in Central America throughout 2013 by UNESCO’s Offices in San José and Guatemala, thanks to the generous contribution of Spain to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.

This first activity, which benefits from the support of the Central American Educational and Cultural Coordination (CECC/SICA), will bring together key Honduran stakeholders involved in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, in particular from the Department of Culture, Arts and Sports as well as representatives of the Nicaraguan Institute of Culture and the Secretariat of Culture of the Salvadoran Presidency. Conducted by two members of the UNESCO-certified experts network, Mr Enrique Pérez López (Mexico) and Ms María Ismenia Toledo (Venezuela), these sessions are designed to provide the focal points of the project in each of the recipient countries with an overview of the objectives, the key concepts and international mechanisms of the 2003 Convention as well as the national obligations of States Parties.

Documents

• Agenda: Spanish
• Preliminary list of participants: Spanish

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00284

More than 25 specialists from governmental and non-governmental institutions, universities and community representatives of different regions of the Dominican Republic will participate in the first workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage that will be held in Santo Domingo from 11 to 15 March.

Conducted by the UNESCO-trained facilitators, Ms Adriana Molano from Colombia and Mr Edis Sánchez from Dominican Republic, the workshop intends to provide an overview of the objectives and key safeguarding concepts of the 2003 Convention as well as the national obligations of States Parties and the mechanisms for international cooperation. Its goal is to create a critical mass of both governmental and civil society actors to lay the first foundations of a sustainable framework for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage in the long term.

With this activity, the Regional Office for Culture for Latin America and the Caribbean of UNESCO, with the collaboration of the Dominican National Commission for UNESCO, launch in Dominican Republic the regional project for strengthening capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in the Caribbean which will be implemented throughout 2013, with the funding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund thanks to the generous contribution of Norway.

Documents

• Agenda: Spanish
• List of participants: Spanish

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00285

Following the workshop on drawing up inventories of intangible cultural heritage held last November in the province of Matanzas, from 31 January to 3 February a preparatory mission was organized to obtain the consent of the community of Majagua, in the very centre of Cuba, to embark on an inventory exercise.

The manifestation selected by the community to undertake this first field exercise was the rural festivities of Red and Blue bands of Majagua, known throughout the island as an enduring social institution that brings residents from different generations into one or the other camp for friendly rivalry and competitions. The exercise will take place from 28 February to 5 March under the supervision of the UNESCO-trained facilitators, María Ismenia Toledo from Venezuela and Enrique López from Mexico. This activity is supported not only by the community of Majagua but also by the provincial authorities in the field of cultural heritage and the Houses of Culture of Ciego de Ávila. The team in charge of the exercise consists of five community members, experts from the provinces of Guantanamo, Camaguey, Ciego de Ávila and Matanzas and two representatives of the National Commission for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. It is the first field activity of a UNESCO capacity-building project, made possible with the generous support of Norway through the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.

Documents

• Majagua community consent: Spanish

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00287

From 25 February 25 to 1 March 2013, governments and civil society representatives of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay will continue the capacity-building programme which was launched in October 2012 with the generous support of the UNESCO/Japan Funds-in-Trust. This time, an intensive training will be delivered on drawing up inventories of intangible cultural heritage. Again, Mónica Lacarrieu and Francisco López Morales will be in charge of this training which will emphasize the key role that the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage grants to communities in the identification and definition of their heritage.

These sessions aim to equip participants with the fundamental knowledge and techniques to design and facilitate an inventorying process with the participation of communities and tailored to their particular circumstances. They will lay the groundwork for the field exercise that the tango community in Buenos Aires will carry out during five months.

Documents

• List of participants: Spanish

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00282

Cambodia is reinforcing a community-based focus in its existing and new efforts to document and inventory living heritage. For this purpose and with generous funding from Japan, over 35 participants came together in Siem Reap from 14 to 21 February this year to build their knowledge and develop this new approach.
UNESCO provided the substantive support through two members of its certified facilitators’ network, Mr Rahul Goswami from India and Ms Suzanne Ogge from Australia. The programme included 8 days of intensive course work and field-based practicum carried out in the rural areas of Siem Reap and the town itself. Fieldwork included a visit to the School of Fine Arts and two local communities, with forms of ICH documented including traditional weaving processes, martial arts skills and techniques, and performing arts. Participants learned, through hands-on training, field-based techniques of interviewing and audio-visual recording. A visit was also conducted to the Eco-Global Museum (supported by UNESCO) located in the Preah Vihear Province, to learn about a concrete inventory project underway which combines audio-visual documentation of living heritage among a local indigenous community with the documentation of associated cultural objects.
So far, Cambodia’s Living Human Treasures programme has included documentation efforts, though its methods have not as yet been extended to community-based approaches recommended by the 2003 Convention. The capacity-building workshop on inventorying with a strong community focus thus provided participants - most of whom are provincial directors – with further skills and knowledge for their field practices. In addition, the training placed much emphasis on developing mutually supportive networks among cultural professionals and communities to support national efforts to document and inventory living heritage.
The participants included those who had attended the first capacity-building workshop on implementation held in 2012 August in Phnom Penh, and new participants. Among them were representatives of civil society organizations. While several mentioned the need for long-term and reliable financial support and stability for safeguarding, all participants confirmed that the training was extremely useful and they would integrate the new approach in their current work and future programmes.

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?meeting_id=00305

How can Arab States effectively implement the 2003 Convention at the national level? What can be done to promote regional cooperation in the Arab world to strengthen the capacities of all concerned stakeholders? What are the best ways to raise people’s awareness and assure the involvement of concerned communities in the process of safeguarding?
These are amongst the issues that representatives of Ministries of Culture of all countries from the Arab region will discuss during the meeting on ‘The challenges of capacity building in the field of intangible cultural heritage’ in Doha from 14 to 17 January 2013.
Generously supported by Qatar and co-organized by the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage of Qatar, ALECSO and UNESCO, this meeting will be the occasion to plan increased cooperation within the region for the effective safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage.
The meeting will be co-facilitated by a group of experts from the Region, all members of a network of 77 experts trained to use the UNESCO curricula specifically designed to build capacity on implementing the Convention.