Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH Convention)

The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was adopted by UNESCO at Paris on 17 October 2003 and entered into force in 2006, three months after the thirtieth ratification. Before it, no binding multilateral instrument existed for the protection of intangible heritage at all.

Its preamble grounds the Convention explicitly in existing human rights instruments, naming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It recognises intangible heritage as a mainspring of cultural diversity and a guarantee of sustainable development, notes the deep interdependence between intangible heritage and tangible cultural and natural heritage, and identifies globalisation and intolerance as sources of real risk, particularly where resources for safeguarding are lacking. It recognises that communities, and especially indigenous communities, are the ones who actually produce, safeguard, maintain and re-create this heritage.

Article 2 defines intangible cultural heritage as the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and skills, together with the instruments, objects and cultural spaces associated with them, that communities, groups and individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage, transmitted across generations and constantly recreated in response to environment and history, providing a sense of identity and continuity. The named domains are oral traditions and language, performing arts, social practices and rituals, knowledge of nature and the universe, and traditional craftsmanship. Safeguarding is defined broadly to cover identification, documentation, research, preservation, protection, promotion, transmission especially through education, and revitalisation.

The definition carries a built-in limit that deserves to be stated plainly: it applies only to heritage that is compatible with existing international human rights instruments and with mutual respect and sustainable development. That clause exists so that culture cannot be invoked to justify rights violations. Article 3 keeps the Convention in its lane, clarifying that it does not diminish protection under the 1972 World Heritage Convention and does not affect states' obligations under intellectual property or biological and ecological resource treaties.

The national obligations in Articles 11 to 19 are built around participation. Each State Party must take measures to safeguard the intangible heritage in its territory, identifying and defining its elements with the participation of the communities and groups who hold it rather than unilaterally through government experts. States are asked to maintain regularly updated inventories, adopt general safeguarding policy, designate competent bodies, foster research, and ensure access to heritage documentation while respecting the customary practices that govern who may access particular heritage. They must promote education and awareness, including inside the communities themselves, and must ensure the widest possible participation of the people who create, maintain and transmit the heritage, actively involving them in its management.

Internationally the Convention establishes two lists, a Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity for visibility and cross-cultural dialogue, and a List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding for heritage at real risk of disappearing, plus a mechanism for selecting and funding national and regional safeguarding programmes that prioritises developing countries' needs. The institutional articles, which carry procedural rather than ethical content, establish a General Assembly of States Parties meeting every two years, an Intergovernmental Committee of eighteen to twenty-four members elected on principles of equitable geographic rotation, and a Fund financed by mandatory contributions capped at one per cent of a state's UNESCO budget contribution plus voluntary ones, on which no political or economic conditions are permitted. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authoritative.