The main scope of this Convention is to strengthen and institutionalize protection mechanisms for particularly vulnerable expressions of cultural identities.
The Intangible Heritage, which summons up traditions, notions, linguistic and artistic expressions, religious rites and celebrations, traditional handicraft techniques and various arts, is the reflection of a people’s vitality and the result of the merging of different cultures - “fragile flowers of humanity” as defined by Claude Lévi-Strauss. If the Intangible Heritage is indeed the expression of a people’s soul, its protection can represent a source of sustainable development for the communities and individuals which are both its creators and keepers.
The General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention is the sovereign body of the Convention. The General Assembly meets in ordinary session every two years and may convene extraordinary sessions if necessary or at the request of either the Committee or of at least one-third of the States Parties.
The General Assembly gives strategic orientations for the implementation of the Convention and elects the 24 members of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
With regards to Italy, seven elements have been inscribed in the Representative List so far:
- Opera dei Pupi, Sicilian Puppet Theatre, 2008
- The Sardinian Pastoral Songs, “Canto a tenore”, 2008
- The Traditional violin craftsmanship in Cremona, 2012
- The Mediterranean diet, a transnational element with Cyprus, Croatia, Greece, Morocco, Spain and Portugal, 2013
- Celebrations of big shoulder-borne processional structures (The celebration of lilies in Nola; the “Varia” of Palmi; the Descent of the Candlesticks in Sassari and the Tower of Santa Rosa in Viterbo), 2013
- The traditional practice of cultivating the “vite ad alberello” of Pantelleria, 2014
- Falconry, a living human heritage, a transnational item inscribed with : the United Arab Emirates, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, France, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Morocco, Pakistan, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Syrian Arab Republic, 2016
Italy’s current candidature is the « Art of the Neapolitan “Pizzaiuolo” », which will be discussed during the next session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, which will take place in the Republic of Korea on December 4-8 2017. For more details, click here.
