ERIC ED495658: Expert Meeting on Community Involvement in Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage: Towards the Implementation of the 2003 Convention (Tokyo, Japan, March 13-15, 2006)

by: ERIC

Publication date: 2006

Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Cultural Background, International Cooperation, Community Involvement, School Community Relationship,

Collection: ericarchive; additional_collections

Language: English

Twenty experts from eighteen countries attended the meeting, which was co-organized by the Intangible Heritage Section of UNESCO and the Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU). They discussed in three successive sessions three subjects concerning community involvement in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH): (1) the definition and identification of communities and groups; (2) the involvement of communities in inventorying their ICH; and (3) the involvement of communities in preparing nominations to the Representative List. The need to involve communities, groups and, sometimes, individuals in safeguarding their intangible cultural heritage is based on several articles of the Convention. The fourth session was dedicated to international cooperation, in particular at the regional level. The debate of each of the sessions was briefly introduced by one or two experts. After each session, a small group of experts was asked to prepare recommendations to be discussed in the final debate. All the debates took into account that: (1) ICH safeguarding is to focus on practices and processes rather than on products; (2) the practitioners and custodians of ICH must play a central role in safeguarding measures; (3) the Convention allows for different manners of inventorying ICH; (4) active collaboration is needed between different stakeholders; and (5) top-down and bottom-up approaches are equally indispensable for designing and implementing measures at the national and the international level. This report contains the Contents of the CD-ROM and then divides into five sections: (1) Introduction; (2) Opening; (3) Definition of Communities and their Involvement in Safeguarding ICH; (4) International Cooperation: Cooperation in and Beyond the Asia-Pacific Region in the Field of the Safeguarding of ICH; and (5) Closure. Annexes include: the Conclusions and Recommendations of the Participants; List of Participants; Background Paper; Organizer's (UNESCO and ACCU) Presentations; and Meeting Documents (General Information; Opening and Closing Remarks by Rieks Streets, Chief of Intangible Heritage Section, UNESCO; and Photographs). [Accompanying CD-ROM (Experts' Reports) is not available from ERIC.]