Participation and Presentation at the 19th ICOMOS General Assembly and Scientific Symposium
The 19th ICOMOS General Assembly and Scientific Symposium was held in Delhi, India from 11th to 15th December. The author took part in the General Assembly and made a presentation at the Symposium.
During the General Assembly, the triennial elections for the Executive Committee were held. Professor Toshiyuki Kono from Kyushu University was elected as president, becoming the second Asian and first Japanese president of ICOMOS since its foundation in 1965. Professor Kono has had a leading role in several initiatives engaging current issues surrounding cultural heritage from multiple perspectives, including the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the Nara+20 Conference and the ICOMOS Project on Cultural Heritage Recovery and Reconstruction. The further development of such initiatives during his three year term is highly anticipated.
In addition, the General Assembly officially adopted the “Principles for the Conservation of Wooden Built Heritage”, redacted by the ICOMOS International Wood Committee (IIWC). This document is an updated version of the 1999 charter by the same committee. The updated version is more detailed and concrete, while at the same time placing a renewed emphasis on the intangible aspects of wooden built heritage.
The General Assembly also saw the adoption as one of its resolutions of a proposal redacted by the Emerging Professionals Working Group, aimed at strengthening the involvement of emerging professionals in the activities of ICOMOS.
At the Scientific Symposium, under the title “Heritage and Democracy”, speakers from different countries presented initiatives aimed at involving actively in the conservation process the local communities and other stakeholders who maintain, use and safeguard the heritage. As an example of such initiatives in Japan, the author made a presentation on the “heritage manager” system.