The eighth session of the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage With all appropriate sanitary measures in place, the 178 States Parties to the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage came together at the eighth General Assembly of the Convention from 8-10 September 2020 in the UNESCO-Headquarters in Paris to discuss vital issues to the Convention.
Beyond the usual discussions such as revisions of the Operational Directives, elections to the Committee or management of the ICH Fund, the States Parties have reflected on the listing mechanisms of the Convention and the intangible cultural heritage in emergencies.
The General Assembly also took important decisions for the implementation of the Convention. Throughout the meeting, delegates discussed the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on living heritage and approved operational principles and modalities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in emergencies. The delegates also strongly reaffirmed the need for a global reflection on the listing mechanisms of the Convention, and for increasing efforts in order to reach geographically more representative, balanced and diversified lists.
A virtual ResiliArt debate also took place on 9 September, which allowed communities from Italy, Mali, Palestine, Peru and Sri Lanka to speak about their living heritage in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In response to the explosion in the port of Beirut on 4 August 2020, the eighth session issued a Declaration on Beirut that expresses its deepest solidarity with Lebanon and its people, recognizes the enormous wealth of Beirut’s intangible cultural heritage and supports the “Li-Beirut” (#ForBeirut) UNESCO initiative.
Hungary became in 2006 the 39th country to accede the Convention. At the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention in 2006, Hungary was elected to be a member of the Intergovernmental Committee for four years and in 2014 was reelected as a member untill 2018.
For more information, please visit:
http://szellemikulturalisorokseg.hu/index_en.php as well as https://ich.unesco.org/en
10/09/2020
