The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, was adopted in 2003. Its objective is to raise awareness of the significance of this heritage as well as its bearers and practitioners. The Convention recognizes the importance to protect the living heritage because it promotes the dialogue between/among peoples and thus it enhances cultural diversity worldwide and stimulates human creativity. The Convention includes two lists which are the Urgent Safeguarding List and the Representative List. It encompasses also the “Register of Good Practices for the Safeguarding of the ICH”. Currently, 676 elements from 140 countries are included in those lists and register. The convention is one of the most successful UNESCO conventions.

In this presentation, I will examine and analyze how UNESCO has been promoting this Convention among its Member States during last two decades.

20 Years of the 2003 Convention: Achievements and Recent Developments

 The year 2023 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage – twenty years since the Convention was adopted, on 17 October 2003. This presentation will outline the key achievements of the Convention, particularly its foundational objective: to raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding living heritage. With the safeguarding of living heritage now integrated in national policies for culture all over the world, attention now turns to how living heritage can address contemporary challenges – particularly in ensuring sustainable livelihoods, tackling climate change, and addressing migration and rapid urbanization. This presentation will highlight some of the steps taken by the governing bodies of the Convention and the global capacity-building programme to achieve these objectives, and speak about the Seoul Vision that provides future direction for the implementation of the Convention to unleash the power of living heritage for peace and sustainable development.

 In the ancient time the location of the Maldives has made the country a famous transit point for the seafarers crossing from East to west and vice versa. Hence, the country was exposed to various cultures and traditions. Therefore, the fusion of cultural practices, rituals and traditions witnessed in the Maldives today is a unique combination. Many of the traditions and cultural practices was influenced from prior religions before the country embracing Islam. As some of these traditions were contradicting to the religion Islam some of these earlier practices were stopped. There have been multiple efforts put into to preserve and conserve the Cultural Heritage of the Maldives, but most of the work has been done to protect Tangible Cultural Heritage (sites/places). Being an archipelago nation with over 200 islands inhabited by people with different cultural traits it was a challenge to compile Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Maldives. Lack of awareness and shortage of resources has accelerated these constraints. To overcome from this situation and to reinforce the identity and cultural values of the Maldives, Cultural Heritage Act of the Maldives was enacted on 2019, which enforces to maintain inventory of both Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage list which needs to be updated periodically. Maldives have yet to ratify the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage and with the assistance of UNESCO, the government of the Maldives is working on achieving this goal.