Print
See related documents
Resolution 2269 (2019)
Safeguarding and enhancing intangible cultural heritage in Europe
1. The Parliamentary Assembly recognises
the importance of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH),
which includes traditions or living expressions inherited from the
past, such as performing arts, social practices, oral traditions,
rituals and festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature
or the knowledge and skills used to produce traditional crafts.
2. Industrialisation, urban development, the expansion of mass
tourism and the standardisation of lifestyles in towns and villages
and of the various forms of knowledge and skills all constitute
a context which places ICH in a vulnerable position. Intangible
cultural heritage is a “living heritage”, the idea of which is not
to preserve rigidly entrenched age-old practices, but rather to
enable them to develop and evolve with the times, and to encourage
practices that are embedded in contemporary society and interact
with other cultures.
3. In this respect, the Assembly welcomes a wide ratification
of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural
Heritage (“ICH Convention”) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and recalls that the Council
of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage
for Society (CETS No. 199, “Faro Convention”) promotes a broader
understanding of heritage and its relationship to communities and
society, and defines an all-embracing framework which is necessary
to ensure that cultural heritage and culture in general have their
rightful place at the centre of a new vision for sustainable development.
4. Both conventions rightfully emphasise the idea of the widest
possible participation of the communities, groups and individuals
concerned. The Council of Europe Cultural Routes Programme promotes
in practice this participatory approach through its 33 certified
Cultural Routes, which integrate both tangible and intangible components
of cultural heritage. The Assembly considers, however, that models
and methods of participatory governance are needed to address the
challenge of setting up fair and feasible community participation. Moreover,
it calls for a certain flexibility in managing ICH and highlights
a set of 12 ethical principles which were adopted in 2016 to complement
the ICH Convention, addressing the fragile balance between respect
for the autonomy of communities, groups and individuals concerned
and providing an adequate public support framework to intervene
in the safeguarding of ICH.
5. The Assembly therefore recommends that the member States of
the Council of Europe:
5.1. concerning
strategy and policy design:
5.1.1. sign and ratify the UNESCO
Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage
and the Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural
Heritage for Society, if they have not yet done so, and develop
national strategies for safeguarding and enhancing the role of ICH
according to the principles laid down in these conventions;
5.1.2. join the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes,
if they have not yet done so, and make best use of the collaborative
platform that the agreement offers to implement and co-ordinate
local and regional ICH projects in a wider European context;
5.1.3. recognise the influence that intangible cultural heritage
can have on society and the economy, fostering the sense of belonging
and well-being, underpinning the cultural and creative sectors,
and offering a playing field for the micro-economy with small and
medium-sized enterprises from local communities;
5.1.4. closely associate the vision of safeguarding ICH with
sustainable development policies (including urban and rural planning,
redevelopment and rehabilitation projects), as well as with their
policies on cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue;
5.1.5. develop new and creative approaches to minimise the negative
impacts of urbanisation on ICH while maximising the potential of
ICH to contribute to a more cohesive society, for example as a factor
which could help migrants build bridges with local communities;
5.1.6. identify and analyse the conditions within which traditional
craftsmanship exists, to assess relative degrees of endangerment
and to determine the future importance of traditional craftsmanship
in terms of cultural policy and the economy;
5.1.7. value ICH as a significant resource for traditional knowledge
and know-how regarding the sustainable management of the natural
environment; for example, initiatives on food traditions that build
on local community farming and production and can become a laboratory
of civil society engagement for more sustainable ways of producing
and consuming;
5.1.8. consider the contribution that ICH can make to sustainable
health and well-being, as part of a call in Europe for more locally
grounded and culturally sensitive approaches to health;
5.2. concerning policy implementation:
5.2.1. create
collaborative and participatory platforms to establish inventories
of ICH; in this regard, develop models and methods of participatory
governance to address the challenge of setting up fair and feasible
community participation;
5.2.2. stimulate transmission of ICH through lifelong learning
and education;
5.2.3. foster and support urban, local and regional development
projects and strategies, and micro-economy, creative economy and
sustainable tourism initiatives that integrate sustainable safeguarding
and enhancement of ICH in close co-operation with the communities
concerned;
5.2.4. provide incentives and funding for multi-stakeholder co-operation
projects and effective platforms for sharing expertise and experience;
in this context, provide training and incentives for local ICH stakeholders
and ICH mediators to enhance co-operation;
5.2.5. promote closer links between tangible and intangible heritage
in order to bring many stakeholders closer together and to provide
available expertise and infrastructure in the field of tangible
heritage; such partnerships, however, require a certain degree of
flexibility;
5.2.6. review legislation, if necessary, to provide a more flexible
framework for safeguarding and enhancing ICH to accommodate the
informal nature of grassroots initiatives;
5.2.7. ensure wider integration of ICH in the projects that are
part of the Council of Europe Cultural Routes Programme.
6. The Assembly invites UNESCO and the European Union to co-operate
with the Council of Europe in supporting the effective implementation
of the ICH Convention and the Faro Convention, and in particular
to:
6.1. facilitate building capacities
through: gathering and exchanging insights from ICH safeguarding and
enhancement practices and methods; cross-disciplinary co-operation;
educational programmes; alignment in digital strategies; ethics;
and cross-border co-operation on common ICH elements or safeguarding
programmes;
6.2. accommodate digital methods and tools for ICH inventories
and for safeguarding practices, so that they can be harmonised in
Europe (technically and methodologically) to further stimulate exchange and
knowledge sharing;
6.3. seek to resolve questions of ownership and intellectual
property rights to provide open data within digital documentation
and transmission of ICH.
7. More specifically, the Parliamentary Assembly invites the
European Union to:
7.1. integrate
ICH policy action into the announced 2020 #Digital4Culture strategy,
using the digital potential to enhance the positive economic and
societal effects of culture;
7.2. include ICH in the European Research Strategy and the
European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Horizon
2020);
7.3. include safeguarding and enhancing ICH in calls, criteria
and support measures for European cultural projects and territorial
co-operation (Creative Europe; Interreg);
7.4. collaborate with the Council of Europe to implement ICH
related initiatives within the Cultural Routes Programme;
7.5. promote ICH in the European Capitals of Culture Programme;
7.6. explore how ICH can be integrated into the scope of European
Heritage Days, by moving beyond the classic open door/monument days
and by embracing the intangible heritage stakeholders and perspectives.