The 4th session of the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage

The 4th session of the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage

 The 4th session of the General Assembly took place from June 4 to 8, 2012 at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris. Representing the Institute, MIYATA Shigeyuki participated in the conference. The main subject for discussion during the session was revision of the Operational Directives, which led to a more lively discussion among representatives from participating nations than takes place at a usual session. Past sessions approved the decisions of the Intergovernmental Committee, but the current session turned into a discussion, much like the Intergovernmental Committee. Revision of the way in which nominations for inscription on the Representative List are evaluated was a matter of intense debate. The question was whether to change from evaluation of nominations by the Subsidiary Body, with extensive advice from the Intergovernmental Committee, to evaluation by the Consultative Body, which is comprised of experts like those tasked with considering nominations for the Urgent Safeguarding List. In the end, the present method of nominations evaluated by the Subsidiary body was retained, with revision of recommendations from the Committee. Decisions that will greatly affect the implementation of convention were made, e.g. the maximum ceiling of files to be evaluated annually by the Committee, a long-running concern, was formally defined in the Operational Directives. Although the Assembly still has supreme decision-making ability with regard to the Convention, this session was the first to completely overturn the recommendations of the Committee, and problems with implementation of the Convention remain. In addition, the appearance of divergent opinions among different regional groups must be followed closely. Since Assembly sessions have increasingly become a forum for discussion, this trend must be followed closely in the future.

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