UNESCO Eternalizes the Tango at Intangible Cultural

UNCLAS ABU DHABI 000995

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR IO/UNESCO
PLEASE PASS USPTO (SHAPIRO)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL SCUL UNESCO KPAO AE
SUBJECT: UNESCO Eternalizes the Tango at Intangible Cultural
Heritage Meeting in Abu Dhabi


1. (SBU) Summary. UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee for the
Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage named the first
intangible cultural heritage elements at its fourth extraordinary
session in Abu Dhabi September 28 to October 2. Ambassador Richard
Olson attended the opening ceremony and represented the U.S. as head
of its observer delegation. The Committee received a standing
ovation when it announced the tango as the first element to be
inscribed on the Representative List. The Committee discussed at
length procedural matters and the possibility of revisiting
operational directives, and also selected best practices of
safeguarding programs that reflect the principles and objectives of
the Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention. End Summary.


2. (SBU) His Highness Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon al Nahyan, Chairman
of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, opened the
session on 28 September by welcoming more than 400 registered
delegates, observers, and journalists who filled the meeting room to
capacity. Subsequent meetings of the fourth extraordinary session
were also well-attended as delegates prepared for the practical
implementation of the Convention.


3. (SBU) Ambassador Olson attended the opening ceremony September
28, serving as the head of the U.S. observer delegation. Nearly all
of the 24 Committee members and the 114 members of the General
Assembly of States Parties to the Convention attended, as well as
approximately 50 registered observer delegations from non-party
UNESCO Member States, NGOs, and experts. The UAE's representative
to the Convention, Awadh Ali Saleh Al Musabi, chaired the session.
Outgoing Director-General of UNESCO Koichiro Maatsura addressed the
closing session.


4. (SBU) The Committee's discussions got off to a contentious start
when the Representative of the Director-General of UNESCO Ms.
Francoise Riviere used her opening remarks to both compliment the
Committee's work and complain about its workload. She stated that
the Committee received too many proposals to seriously evaluate them
all, and that the volume of proposals was not geographically
balanced -- with the great majority coming from Asia and very few
from Africa or South America. She suggested that the Committee
limit submissions to three per country per year. Barring this
limit, she asked that member states exercise discretion in future
years in order to reduce the burden on the Committee. Cherif
Khaznadar, Chairperson of the General Assembly of the States Parties
to the Convention, said the Committee's workload exacerbates the
geographical imbalance of submissions by preventing Committee staff
from spending more time offering assistance to southern states in
protecting their intangible cultural heritage.

5. (SBU) On September 30 and October 1, the Committee inscribed the
first 88 intangible cultural heritage elements to the Representative
List and the Urgent Safeguarding List. (Note: The Representative
List already included 90 elements, following the incorporation of
the 90 masterpieces proclaimed before the Convention entered into
force. End Note.) In Abu Dhabi, the Committee added the first 76
elements to the Representative List nominated by member states in
order to enhance the visibility of the intangible cultural heritage
and to promote its continued practice. The tango became the first
official addition to the list.

6. (SBU) The Committee added 12 elements proposed by member states
to the Urgent Safeguarding List. These included the traditional
music of the Tsuur, a Mongolian woodwind instrument; the language
and culture of the Suiti, a small Catholic community in western
Latvia; and the traditional Kaya forest settlements of the Mijikenda
communities of coastal Kenya. The Committee determined the
viability of these elements to be endangered, despite the efforts of
the community or group concerned. Inscription of an element on the
Urgent Safeguarding List makes the state potentially eligible for
financial assistance to implement specific safeguards.

7. (SBU) The Committee also selected three examples of best
practices of safeguarding programs that reflect the principles and
objectives of the Convention. Among the best practices noted by the
Committee were the Pusol school museum, integrating the study and
protection of cultural heritage with formal education in Elche,
Spain; and a joint project to protect the music, oral expressions,
and culture of the Aymara communities of Bolivia, Chile and Peru.

OLSON