REPORTS OF STATE PARTIES ON THE USE OF INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE FROM THE INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE FUND

Document ITH/15/10.COM/6.c

Decision 10.COM 6.c

204.The Chairperson opened the session and invited the Secretary to present the item on the use of International Assistance from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.

205.The Secretary began by reminding the Committee of Article 24.3 of the Convention: ‘The beneficiary State Party shall submit to the Committee a report on the use of the assistance provided for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage’. She continued that this was the second year that the Committee had received such reports, covering the period from October 2014 to September 2015. The reporting procedure had been standardised with the introduction of a form that is already being used in most cases, the use of which will in future be mandatory. She told the meeting that the interim report from Mali on the first emergency assistance ever granted, that was approved by the Bureau in October 2013, was part of this document. She explained that despite contextual challenges the project promised early results demonstrating the contribution of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage through the consolidation of peace and international community dialogue. The Secretary mentioned that this was a project which, given the current context, they were particularly proud of. Since this document was written, three requests for international assistance had been granted by the Bureau that met on 6 October 2015, namely:

• 
  Kenya (US$24,038) for inventory of the living heritage of the semi-nomadic pastoral Samburu community in northern Kenya, particularly in the region of Mount Kulal Biosphere Reserve;
  
• 
  Togo (US$24,950) for a pilot project on the inventory, conservation and enhancement of Togolese traditional musical instruments skills; and
  
• 
  Sudan (US$480,174) for documentation and inventory of its intangible cultural heritage following a Committee decision taken during its ninth session.
  

207.The Chairperson thanked the Secretary, saying that before proceeding to the discussion she had been informed that some of the beneficiary States wished to share their experiences and achievements through audio-visual materials brought to the meeting, and asked the countries to be brief due to time constraints.

208.The delegation of Burkina Faso thanked the Government of Namibia for the welcome extended to them and the Chairperson for her capable handling of proceedings. The delegation expressed their gratitude to UNESCO for the assistance provided to Burkina Faso in safeguarding and promoting their intangible cultural heritage. Assistance received from UNESCO in 2011 made it possible to initiate an inventory project in 2014 for two out of the 13 administrative regions. This exercise was concluded in 2015 with awareness-raising and involvement of local communities as well as the establishment of the administrative organs of the project, training of members, identification of 97 intangible cultural heritage elements in the pilot area and external assessments of that phase. The main inventorying phase was launched in August 2014 in the presence of the Governors of the 11 regions concerned and with the involvement of the Ministries of Research and Innovation, Higher Education and Territorial Administrations. Training materials were produced and disseminated, awareness was raised amongst communities and an awareness-raising film in each of the country’s eight main languages was produced. According to the delegation, fieldwork would be commencing on 8 December and concluding in February 2016.

209.The delegation of Burkina Faso further pointed out that the project enabled them to involve communities, build capacity and to create a website and a dynamic database. Results of the inventory at the local, regional and national levels changed the way intangible cultural heritage is perceived and that Burkina Faso has committed itself to providing adequate human, scientific, material and financial resources needed to face any unexpected events that might arise. It concluded by saying that, despite the difficult socio-political context of the country, it was committed to implement the project as planned, reinforcing interaction between inventorying and promotion of intangible cultural heritage. Decentralisation for the scientific and technological activities is underway, as well as secondary and higher education for better safeguarding and promotion of the country’s intangible cultural heritage.

[Audio-visual presentation by Burkina Faso]

210.Thanking Burkina Faso, the Chairperson invited the delegation of Senegal to give their presentation.

211.The delegation of Senegal offered its thanks to the Government of Namibia for the excellent working environment, going on to say how proud the meeting in Windhoek made them as Africans and that to them Namibia was a symbol of the new Africa, full of hope and determined to face its challenges. Regarding financial assistance received and mentioning particularly Ms Duvelle of the Secretariat who had visited Senegal, the delegation affirmed that they were grateful to the Secretariat not just for the assistance provided to Senegal, but above all for the constant advice provided through the different stages of the process. It explained that the inventory of traditional music in Senegal proved to be a very enriching experience and the results would have a lasting impact on the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in Senegal. Above and beyond capacity building brought about by the inventorying exercise and digital storage of data, communities involved in the project showed remarkable enthusiasm, stressing that certain types of traditional music were fast-disappearing under the onslaught of modern music through access to public media. The project helped communities rediscover their cultural heritage. The delegation went on by saying that traditional music in Senegal celebrates birth, marriage and death and that the cycles of life form part of the education of children, providing lessons on the initiation rites of adolescents. The inventory enabled the identification of 72 traditional musical expressions in five regions in northern and southern Senegal, involving 548 people in meetings and workshops, training of 78 stakeholders and produced five local action plans, some of which have started being implemented. A festival for traditional music would be organised in April 2016. It concluded by thanking UNESCO on behalf of local communities, local leaders, non-governmental organisations as well as the State of Senegal for the financial assistance granted.

[Audio-visual presentation by Senegal]

212.Thanking Senegal, the Chairperson invited the delegation of Mali to give their presentation.

[Audio-visual presentation by Mali shown concurrently with the oral presentation]

213.The delegation of Mali thanked the Government of Namibia and the Chairperson for her involvement and the Secretariat for overseeing implementation of the programme. It said that Mali received financial support from the Convention in 2013 for an inventory project consisting of two phases. The first phase initiated in 2012 was a response to conflict in northern Mali, which caused severe damage to cultural heritage in the region, long before similar situations arose in Syria and Iraq. The delegation underlined that what suffered the most and silently from the crisis was intangible cultural heritage as certain forms of expressions were prohibited and people punished for practising them.

214.At the same time the Malian delegation pointed out that the conflict led to a revitalisation of certain rituals and practices, as in communities’ vision of the world there is a strong link between the dead and the living and ancestors have always had a protective role, and that in the time of conflict communities felt the need to consult them. It then gave other examples of elements identified through the inventorying exercise such as music traditions in Kidal, certain in which women come together to express joy in the time of sorrow, agrarian rites, ceremonies related to rainy season and harvests as well as festivals containing practices, which became the subject of prohibition in certain regions. The delegation then talked about the synergies of this project with the reconstruction of the mausoleums carried out under the World Heritage Convention. It explained that an inventory was being dressed on the intangible aspect of traditional masonry, which has a strong link with the building techniques practiced by the communities living around the mausoleums. The delegation further informed the meeting that the second phase of inventorying was being launched for southern Mali in four regions not directly affected by the war. The delegation concluded by thanking again the 2003 Convention and by commending the resilience of communities thriving despite the savage massacres and other damage inflicted on their heritage.

215.The Chairperson thanked Mali, and gave the floor to Uganda.

216.The delegation of Uganda thanked the Secretariat and members of the Committee for the assistance received for the elaboration of a nomination concerning the ‘Madi O’di music and dance’ to the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, and also for a second one received for inventorying intangible cultural heritage elements of four Ugandan communities. The preparatory assistance was invaluable firstly because it empowered the Madi people to mobilise their youth to embrace O’di learning in schools; secondly, it created ownership by district and local governments to mainstream culture into their district development plans; and lastly, it allowed Uganda to submit a file in time to be considered for inscription on the Urgent Safeguarding List. With the second international assistance received and the participation of communities at all levels and in all processes, a national strategy on inventorying was developed and national awareness was raised. A national inventory of 68 elements was drawn up from these four communities and four elements were also identified as part of these activities. There is now a database of all elements, resources and processes under the Ministry responsible for culture. Uganda appreciated the support it had received and thanked the Madi community who took an active part in the elaboration of the nomination file and continue to embrace their culture and pass it on to younger generations. Uganda concluded by saying it would like to continue to support these communities in their promotion of Uganda’s intangible cultural heritage.

[Audio-visual presentation by Uganda]

217.The Chairperson thanked Uganda, and gave the floor to Uruguay.

218.The delegation of Uruguay presented the project ‘Documentation, promotion and dissemination of the Candombe traditional drum calls, expressions of identity of the Sur, Palermo, and Cordón neighbourhoods in the city of Montevideo’²¹ financed by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund. The delegation started by saying that they had accomplished everything foreseen in the project and that the complete report was available online. It went on by giving information about the lives of the Afro-descended community in Uruguay both before and after this project that was carried out over 18 months. It explained that some three centuries ago, European colonists were taking people from Africa to the New World and Montevideo was the primary destination of the slave trade in the south Atlantic, and at independence more than a third of the population of Uruguay was African. New waves of immigration changed the demographic balance of the country, the sons and daughters of the African population remained poor and their cultural values were dismissed. The various African ethnic groups and nationalities managed to build a distinctive set of cultural practices that retained the pride of their cultural heritage, of which Candombe was the most popular. It took almost two centuries for Uruguay to acknowledge the legacy of the Africans and their families as being part of the Uruguayan culture, and in the last decade the country passed several laws condemning discrimination, racism, and establishing positive policies to empower the Afro-Uruguayan community. One of the first of such actions was the symbolic impact of inscription of Candombe on the Representative List. With financial support of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, the country established a series of measures that today are national policy. The project assembled community leaders and helped to create a Candombe advisory group that has been meeting with national and local authorities with the participation of the Under-Secretary of Education and Culture. This committee, in permanent consultation with representative groups of civil society, has visited every provincial capital and established links with descendants whose social situation have not yet benefited from the new policies. This national activity of Candombe and Candombe leaders created a network that began changing the isolation of those groups in smaller cities with workshops at schools, media presence, political acknowledgment and legacy appropriation. The delegate for Uruguay concluded by saying that Candombe’s place in Uruguayan national and cultural society is secured.

219.The delegation of Viet Nam expressed their sincere thanks for assistance provided by the Committee towards protecting and safeguarding indigenous knowledge associated with the ecological environment of the Black Ha Nhi people based in Lao Cai Province. The delegation continued that the project has documented knowledge adapted to the ecological environment of Lao Chai village, assessing the community’s ancestral knowledge on forest protection and its transmission. This practice applies local knowledge in sustainably protecting their environment with the active participation of the local communities. The Viet Nam delegation concluded by expressing their belief that this project would become a useful example for other communities in protecting their forests and water resources.

220.The delegation of Kenya thanked the Government of Namibia for its hospitality and the Chairperson for the manner in which she was guiding the Committee. Kenya had received international assistance from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund to elaborate a nomination to the Urgent Safeguarding List concerning practices and traditions associated with the Kit Mikayi shrine of the Seme community in western Kenya. The State Party worked very closely with the community in terms of performance of the rituals and in open air fora. The involvement of the community created awareness especially amongst the young and the State Party is committed to safeguard these practices for the benefit of future generations. The Kenyan delegate said that safeguarding measures involving communities were devised with the Kisumu County with whom they worked closely to safeguard this element nominated for the Urgent Safeguarding List for the next cycle and for which the delegation was hoping for favourable consideration.

221.The Chairperson thanked delegations that had shared their experiences, and conveyed that the Committee appreciated proof of what the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund brought to countries and communities. There were no requests for floor, and the Chairperson moved to draft decision 10.COM 6.c.

222.The delegation of Turkey expressed their recognition and appreciation for work achieved in this area, saying that as a fundamental issue falling within the mandate of UNESCO they would have preferred to have seen hundreds, rather than seven or eight beneficiary States and that every year UNESCO should be flooded with small but visible success stories. With so many rituals facing extinction in different parts of the world, Turkey felt that this is an area where the legacy of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage would be sustained in the future and would become one of UNESCO’s flagships. The delegate of Turkey expressed the wish for a wider geographical spread of funding requests and more assistance becoming available, which would result in more examples of intangible cultural heritage being safeguarded. In this vein they wished to introduce a new paragraph 9, by which encouraging increasing voluntary contributions to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund with a view to supporting those States Parties in need of technical and financial assistance to prepare and develop their national inventories. Turkey concluded by expressing their hope that colleagues and other members would promote the idea, encouraging countries to give more voluntary funds to allow the Secretariat to expand its scope and number of activities.

223.The Secretary, while not wishing to oppose the very welcome proposal from Turkey, suggested a slightly different wording as the Convention does not speak of ‘national inventory’, but ‘inventory of intangible cultural heritage at the national level’.

224.The delegation of Turkey agreed with the Secretariat’s suggestion, with an inclusion of ‘also’ in the amendment, and with no further comments or objections the Chairperson declared Decision 10.COM 6.c adopted as amended.

ITEM 7.a OF THE AGENDA:

REPORT BY THE COMMITTEE TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON ITS ACTIVITIES (JUNE 2014 TO JUNE 2016)

Document ITH/15/10.COM/7.a

Decision 10.COM 7.a

225.The Chairperson moved to the next the item, the report by the Committee to the General Assembly on its activities from June 2014 to June 2016 and invited the Secretary to present the item.

226.The Secretary began by reminding that in accordance with Article 30 of the Convention the Committee is to submit a report of its activities to the General Assembly at each of its sessions, so that the current report would be submitted to the General Assembly at its sixth session in June 2016 and would also be brought to the attention of the next session of the General Conference of UNESCO in 2017. Since the report covered activities undertaken before October 2015, it needed to be completed with activities of the Committee between the time of the writing of the report in October 2015 and the next session of the General Assembly in June 2016. The Secretary pointed out that this was a short document, aligning with the requirement of the General Conference that documents should be no longer than six pages. The report should be read in tandem with the financial report of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund (annex to document ITH/15/10.COM/8), the follow-up on the audits and evaluations (document ITH/15/10.COM/15.c) and on two documents related to periodic reporting (ITH/15/10.COM/6.a and ITH/15/10.COM/6.b).

227.The Secretary went on by explaining that the document started with some basic information on the composition of the Committee, its Bureau and the Evaluation Body and was organised according to the different functions of the Committee set out under Article 7 of the Convention. She mentioned that when drafting the documents of the current Committee session particular care was taken to distinguish between the decision-making activities of the Committee in this report (7.a) and activities undertaken by the Secretariat to implement the decisions of the Committee in the report of the Secretariat (7.b). The draft decision proposed that that the Committee delegates to its Bureau the authority to approve the final report of the Committee, as in previous years.

228.The Chairperson thanked the Secretary, and opened the floor for comments.

229.The delegation of Nigeria mentioned an omission in the previous decision (Decision 10.COM 6.c), in that Senegal had benefitted from assistance but was not commended as other States that received assistance.

230.The Secretary, advised that that the two States mentioned and commended in the decision had benefitted from international assistance that resulted in submission of a nomination to the Urgent Safeguarding List, which was not the case of Senegal.

231.The delegation of Nigeria thanked the Secretary for their clarification.

232.The Chairperson moved to draft decision 10.COM 7.a.

233.The delegation of Turkey, with the aim to promote further ratification of the Convention, proposed a new paragraph inviting the Director-General to write to all Members States not party to the Convention, inviting them to ratify it. Turkey suggested that a new paragraph be inserted between paragraphs 3 and 4 in this regard.

234.The Chairperson thanked Turkey and sought clarification concerning the new paragraph 4. Turkey mentioned that that the Director-General would be ‘requested’, yet the text submitted to the Secretariat was the Director-General being ‘advised’.

235.The delegation of Turkey apologised for the observed discrepancy between their draft and what was conveyed to the Secretariat, repeating that their request was for the Director-General to invite the Members States not party to the Convention through a written appeal to ratify.

236.The delegation of Peru, saying that the Committee should have a proactive approach towards countries that have not yet ratified the Convention and even though they found Turkey’s proposal interesting, expressed its wish to hear from the Secretariat on the traditional mechanisms used to call upon Members States not party to the Convention to ratify the Convention, as the paragraph suggested by Turkey seemed to be outside the usual scope of the Committee’s work.

237.The Secretary explained that their strategy to ratification to the Convention consisted of meetings, training and workshops, bringing together Members States not party to the Convention, sometimes with existing States Parties, to convince them of the benefits of becoming a member of the Convention. She mentioned work undertaken with the Category 2 centre in CRIHAB, to encourage ratification of some specific countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Pacific States. The Secretariat thought it was too optimistic to expect States to ratify as a result of letters sent repeating that a proactive strategy was employed working through workshops, sessions, role-play and strategizing arguments to convince Members States not party. The Secretary mentioned that certain States do not ratify due to specific reasons and are impossible to convince through workshops or meetings. Expressing the hope to reach as many ratifications as possible she also reminded the meeting that the 2003 Convention is the most rapidly-ratified convention in the history of UNESCO.

238.The delegation of Turkey responded that if there were no objections from the States Parties, it would do no harm to the Convention to retain the paragraph.

239.The Chairperson asked whether it was acceptable to have parallel actions promoting the Convention or encouraging ratification.

240.The delegation of Latvia returned to the concern expressed by Peru, suggesting that asking the Director-General to contact Members States not party would possibly be confusing as it is currently the role of the UNESCO Secretariat to invite different countries to join the Convention. Latvia went on to say that as the 2003 Convention is one of the most ratified worldwide and therefore there was no specific necessity to include the paragraph.

241.The delegate of Peru apologised for raising the topic again, saying that if the Committee wanted to encourage Members States not party, the procedure should not be through the Director-General of UNESCO but through the Secretariat, to strengthen efforts already made in encouraging States to ratify the Convention rather than invoking a specific mechanism such as a letter from the Director-General to States. Peru went on to say that the Committee should maintain a more sustained effort in inviting States to ratify, and the inclusion of a more open-ended paragraph that does not focus only on the Director-General.

242.The Chairperson suggested the Committee might want to include something in the decision encouraging the Secretariat to find a language that satisfied Turkey but was inclusive of what Peru was proposing, in that it should not only be around the Director-General, but the Secretariat.

243.The delegation of Turkey said that the office of the Director-General should be involved and that in earlier cases the Director-General had approached Members States not party to Conventions, to encourage them. Turkey highlighted that in 2008 the Committee had authorised the Secretariat to incorporated Masterpieces in the Representative List; certain elements originated from Members States not party to the 2003 Convention. Turkey continued by saying that if Latvia and Peru wished to incorporate a paragraph, and instead of asking the Director-General to write a separate letter, where the Committee encouraged Members States not party to consider ratifying the Convention, it would be in agreement with this.

244.The delegation of Greece felt that by discussing this issue participants became more aware of the worldwide efforts of the Secretariat. Regarding encouraging more countries to ratify the Convention, Greece suggested keeping both proposals along the lines of Turkey’s suggestion, encouraging the Committee and Secretariat to raise awareness about the Convention among Members States not party. Greece concluded that the efforts of the Secretariat in this regard would be enhanced if Members States not party were reminded about the Convention at the highest level, such as through a letter from the Director-General of UNESCO.

245.The Chairperson pointed out that the Committee was still looking for appropriate wording to capture the Turkish amendment within paragraph 3. As it now stood, it welcomed the two States that had ratified the convention since the fifth session of the General Assembly, and encouraged Members States not party to ratify it.

246.The delegation of Turkey suggested that Greece formulates what they wanted to be added and requested the Secretariat to continue their activities promoting the early ratification of the Convention.

247.The amendments were shown on the screen, encouraging Members States not party to ratify the Convention and requesting the Secretariat to continue its efforts to promote the ratification. Without any objections the Chairperson declared Decision 10.COM 7.a adopted as amended.