A screenshot from the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage website.
Introduction
During this year’s session in Asunción, Republic of Paraguay, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage inscribed 2 elements on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and 61 elements on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (including three transfers from the Urgent Safeguarding List to the Representative List). In addition, three programmes were included in the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices.
Notably, the 2024 inscriptions include the first-ever entries for Brunei Darussalam, Ghana, Myanmar, Rwanda, and Somalia, marking significant milestones for these countries.
With this year’s additions, UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists now feature a total of 788 elements, representing 150 countries worldwide.
In the spirit of the convention
The nineteenth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage took place in Asunción, Paraguay from 2nd to 7th of December in 2024. Around one thousand people came together to celebrate the UNESCO 2003 convention. For the author of this article, who has attended 16 committee meetings, I observed a significant peaceful atmosphere compared to previous meetings. No harsh debates or tough discussions were to be heard. I believe there could be several reasons for this.
First, it’s obvious that the global situation with escalating armed conflicts in Ukraine, Palestine, Syria, and other places, characterized the atmosphere in the meeting, and was a reason for the particularly friendly atmosphere. After all, this was a UNESCO meeting, and with the horror going on in the background I believe everyone felt the responsibility to keep in tune with the spirit of UNESCO core values with dialogue and friendship. Not least the new Secretary of the 2003 Convention Ms. Fumiko Ohinata, contributed with her calm impact on the meeting.
The Norwegian bunad community drew a lot of attention
The impact of the dialogue option
The inscriptions on the three lists, have often been a source for heated discussions. Sometimes because the submitting state party does not agree with the conclusion of the evaluation body, and in other cases because of the rivalry between states that claim ownership to a certain element. In this meeting this was not the case. The 19. committee meeting became more a celebration than a debate, thanks to the dialogue option that was introduced a couple of years ago, and in 2024 has proved its impact. Of 66 files in total the Evaluation body had sent 20 files back to the submitting state with 27 questions. The result was that the body approved 19 of the files after the response from the State Parties concerned and left one for referral to be decided in the meeting. The recommendation after the dialogue option was to approve 65 files, and one file was left for discussion. To sum this up, there was no debate or discussion necessary. In previous committee meetings this item has been discussed with intensity, and sometimes quite harsh language. One can probably conclude that the dialogue option has contributed to changes in this part of the agenda from a lively time-consuming debate to a celebration and pure presentation of the elements to be inscribed. On one hand this contributes to efficiency and harmony, but on the other hand some of the discussions concerned could have been interesting for the participants and provided insight in the listing mechanisms.
Multinational nominations: A back door to Representative list?
Worth noting is the increasing number of multinational nominations for the representative list. In this cycle eleven multinational nominations were evaluated. The high number of multinational files could indicate an increased capacity and interest of States Parties in nominating shared intangible cultural heritage. Such multinational files also positively reflect the living nature of intangible cultural heritage and the shared cultures across borders, countries and regions. On the other hand, the multinational nominations could represent an easy way into the list, A possible back door. However, there were both new inscriptions with multinational elements, such as the Henna: rituals, aesthetic and social practices, and previously inscribed elements where other state parties joined, such as the Nawrouz file. After the 19.COM 13 state parties supported? the Nawrouz file, which was first inscribed in 2016.
From the 19.COM
Norwegian folk costumes ruled
The prize for the most visual element at the committee meeting goes to Norway, and the inscription of the Bunad, Traditional costumes in Norway, craftsmanship and social practice. 13 members of the bunad community had travelled from Norway to Paraguay, and put their colourful, traditional dresses on. The representatives from the bunad community drew a lot of attention from the audience in the meeting and became popular subjects for many photos.
The increase of eatable ICH
Another trend is the increasing number of nominations related to food. From previous years we remember well that the practices related to Borsch from Ukraine or the baguette traditions in France were inscribed. This could have opened up a Pandora’s box. In 2024 10 (!) of the elements could be linked to food. Some examples are the Japanese Sake tradition (Traditional knowledge and skills of sake-making with koji mould in Japan) or the bread baking tradition (Traditional knowledge and practices for the making and consumption of cassava bread in Cuba), submitted by the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras and Venezuela. From Korea the Knowledge, beliefs and practices related to jang making was another inscription related to food. We are aware there is no competition, but the video presentation of the jang element was undoubtedly outstanding. It may be worth noting with regard to the food-related files that they all focused on the cultural model and traditions associated with the food, which is a positive move compared with the focus on the actual foodstuff we have seen from time to time in the past.
Moving from Urgent safeguarding list to the Representative list
This year there were three transfer requests to move elements from the Urgent Safeguarding List to the Representative List. All for these requests came from China. The three elements concerned were: Traditional Li textile techniques: spinning, dyeing, weaving and embroidering, the Qiang New Year festival, and Traditional design and practices for building Chinese wooden arch bridges. When elements are moved from Urgent Safeguarding List to the Representative List it is because the safeguarding measures and strategies seem to have worked, and the element is vibrant and alive. We should also keep in mind that with UNESCOs strict limitation of the number of files that can be inscribed every year, the transferral from Urgent safeguarding List to the Representative list represents a smart and queue free way to the Representative List. In this context it is worth noting that so far no element has been requested to transfer from the Representative List to the Urgent safeguarding list.
#HeritageAlive Film festival
The #HeritageAlive Film festival
The #HeritageAlive symposiums in cooperation with ICHCAP has been a highlight at previous meetings. Inspired by the success the #HeritageAlive Editorial Board decided to launch a film festival. Accredited NGOs were challenged to make a five minute film showing their work in the field. The film medium can be a wonderful way of providing insight into ICH, and the film festival demonstrated some of the rich diversity in the field of ICH. The response was great and the #HeritageAlive Film festival will be developed further and repeated at the 20.COM in Deli.
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Eivind Falk
This article is contributed by Eivind Falk, Director of the Norwegian Crafts Institute, Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage, in Norway (https://eng.handverksinstituttet.no/).
He is currently a member of the International Advisory Board of Culture Masters. Eivind has served as Editor-in-Chief of the UNESCO-accredited NGO journal #HeritageAlive since its inception in 2012. From 2016 to 2019, he was a member of the UNESCO Evaluation Body, where he evaluated over two hundred international files for potential inscription.
Eivind Falk is actively engaged as a member and chair of several boards related to education and crafts. He has authored, edited, and contributed to numerous books and articles on traditional crafts and intangible cultural heritage. Beyond his work as a cultural advocate, Eivind is also a skilled traditional woodwork teacher, having conducted classes and workshops for children and adults across Norway, the US, and India.
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