An Historical Overview of the Preparation of the UNESCO International Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage

This article reviews the different factors which generated international standard setting for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, examines the conceptual evolution of this notion, and traces the various steps of negotiations leading to the adoption of the Convention in 2003. The establishment of the first normative instrument was the Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore (1989). Much attention had been given to the question of Intellectual Property Rights, which at the end was left aside for a more global approach. In 1997, the World Forum on the Protection of Folklore, organized by UNESCO and WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization), concluded that the copyright regime was not adequate for ensuring protection, but that a new international agreement was needed. The 1992 UNESCO 'Intangible Cultural Heritage' programme consolidated by the UNESCO/Japan Fund-in-Trust, the creation of a world list of Living Human Treasures in 1993, the 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, and the subsequent setting-up of the United Nations decade for indigenous and minority people (1995-2004) generated a number of significant events in favour of the safeguarding of intangible heritage and made urgent the need for a new normative instrument. The Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was conceived in 1997 as a means to fill the gap in the concept of 'world heritage', which refers mainly to the 'Northern' natural and tangible cultural heritage. The Assessment of the 1989 Recommendation played a catalytic role for the successful adoption of the 2003 Convention, in which a more holistic conception of 'heritage' prevailed, with a predominant role given to artists, practitioners and communities deserving of respect and motivation. This Convention marks a fundamental ethical positioning.