“Synergies between 1972 and 2003 Conventions”

1. 1
SYNERGIES BETWEEN 1972
AND 2003 CONVENTIONS
© All Rights Reserved: UNESCO/ ICH
14-15 June 2016
Brač - CROATIA

2. 2
1972 Convention 2003 Convention
Focus Conservation of natural
and cultural heritage
properties
Safeguarding of intangible
cultural heritage elements
Nature Cultural and/or natural Cultural and/or social
Link to
Development
Heritage as fundamental
to sustainable
development
Cultural heritage as a
mainspring of cultural diversity,
an important vector for
sustainable development
Major
Stakeholders
Enhanced role of
communities (strategic
objectives 5Cs)
Communities and individuals
maintaining living intangible
heritage
Similarities in
domains…
Cultural landscapes Cultural spaces
Differences & similarities

3. 3
World Heritage
• World Heritage
List
• List of WH Sites in Danger
• WH Committee identifies sites in
serious danger
• To encourage corrective action
Intangible Cultural Heritage
• Representative List
• Register of Best Safeguarding
Practices
• Urgent Safeguarding
• Identified and nominated by State
Parties
• To mobilize assistance
Mechanisms

4. 4
World Heritage
• Outstanding Universal Value
(OUV) decided by authorities and
experts in consultation with
stakeholders
• Comparison of value between
sites; site must fill a gap on the
World Heritage List as best
exemplar or representative within
its geo-cultural region/globally
Intangible Cultural Heritage
• Significance to communities,
and decided by communities
• No comparison of value among
ICH elements
• ICH changes over time
Core concepts

5. 5
World Heritage
• Integrity: wholeness and
intactness of site, no impact on
OUV from development/neglect
• Authenticity to be protected: OUV
is truthfully and credibly expressed
through form and design, materials
and substance, spirit and feeling,
etc.
• Evolution from the Venice Charter
(1964) to the Nara Document on
Authenticity (1994)
Intangible Cultural Heritage
• ICH can evolve but should not be
divorced from its social context.
• Viability to be safeguarded:
keeping the transmission and
healthy changes of the practices
to next generations >> continued
practice / “Living Heritage”
Core Concepts

6. 6
In some cases, Intangible Heritage is
one of the contributing factors
that determines the
Outstanding Universal Value
of the World Heritage site.
Criterion (vi):
be directly or tangibly associated with events or living
traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and
literary works of outstanding universal significance
e.g. Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Auschwitz Birkenau…
6

7. 7
Example of synergies in the lists
(Kenya)
© All Rights Reserved: UNESCO/ ICH
World Heritage List Representative List of ICH
Sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forests Traditions and practices associated
with the Kayas in the sacred forests
of the Mijikenda
• Consist of 11 separate forest sites spread
over some 200 km;
• Contain remains of numerous fortified
villages, known as kayas, of the Mijikenda
people;
• Regarded as the abodes of ancestors and
are revered as sacred sites and, as such,
are maintained as by councils of elders.
• The Mijikenda includes nine Bantu-speaking
ethnic groups in the Kaya forests;
• The Mijikenda identity is expressed through
forests- related oral traditions and performing
arts;
• Practices constitute codes of ethics and
governance systems, and include prayers,
oath-taking, burial rites and charms, naming of
the newly born, initiations, reconciliations,
marriages and coronations.

8. 8
Example of synergies in the lists
(Philippines)
© All Rights Reserved: UNESCO/ ICH
World Heritage List Representative List of ICH
Rice Terraces of the Philippine
Cordilleras
Hudhud chants of the Ifugao
• For 2,000 years, the Ifugao rice fields have
followed the contours of the mountains;
• They are the fruit of knowledge handed
down from one generation to the next, and
the expression of sacred traditions and a
delicate social balance;
• They have helped to create a landscape of
great beauty that expresses the harmony
between humankind and the environment.
• The Hudhud consists of narrative chants
traditionally performed by the Ifugao
community;
• The community is well known for its rice
terraces extending over the highlands of the
Philippine northern island;
• It is practised during the rice sowing season, at
harvest time and at funeral wakes and rituals.
• Include more than 200 chants. A complete
recitation may last several days.

9. 9
© All Rights Reserved: UNESCO/ ICH
Dr. Tim Curtis
Secretary of the 2003 Convention and
Chief of the Intangible Cultural
Heritage Section, UNESCO
www.unesco.org/culture/ich