4 COM ITH/09/4.COM/CONF.209/14 Paris, 31 August 2009 Original: English UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION CONVENTION FOR THE SAFEGUARDING OF THE INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE INTERGOVERNMENTAL COMMITTEE FOR THE SAFEGUARDING OF THE INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE Fourth session Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates 28 September to 2 October 2009 Item 14 of the Provisional Agenda: Evaluation of the nominations for inscription on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding Summary Eight States Parties submitted twelve nominations for inscription in 2009 on the Urgent Safeguarding List. In conformity with paragraph 5 of the Operational Directives and Decision 3.COM 10, these nominations have been examined by examiners appointed by the Bureau of the Committee. This document includes a set of draft decisions, and annexes with an overview of each nomination and the two examination reports. The nomination files are available on the website of the Convention. Decision required: paragraph 13. ITH/09/4.COM/CONF.209/14 page 2 1. According to Article 17 of the Convention, the Committee establishes, keeps up to date and publishes the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and inscribes such heritage on the List at the request of the State Party concerned. 2. At its second session, the General Assembly adopted the Operational Directives of the Convention (Resolution 2.GA 5), including the criteria and procedures for inscription on the Urgent Safeguarding List (Chapter 1.1). These Directives include in their paragraph 18 a transitional timetable for the first inscriptions on the List. On 23 June 2008, the forms for nominations for the List and their explanatory notes were available online and all States Parties have been informed of the procedures and deadlines for submitting the nominations. 3. At the deadline of 16 March 2009 (the deadline established by the provisional timetable was postponed one day, given that 15 March was a Sunday), the Secretariat received the following fifteen nominations from nine States Parties: Belarus Rite of the Kalyady Tsars (Christmas Tsars) 00308 China Maxirap 00304 China Qiang New Year festival 00305 China Traditional design and practices for building Chinese wooden 00303 arch bridges China Traditional Li textile techniques: spinning, dyeing, weaving and 00302 embroidering France The Cantu in paghjella: a secular and liturgical oral tradition of 00315 Corsica Kenya Traditions and practices associated to the Kayas in the sacred 00313 forests of the Mijikenda Latvia Suiti cultural space 00314 Mali The Sanké mon: collective fishing rite of the Sanké 00289 Mexico La Maroma or peasant circus 00316 Mexico The Yúmare of the Ooba (Lower Pimas) and their oral tradition 00317 Mongolia Mongol Biyelgee: Mongolian traditional folk dance 00311 Mongolia Mongol Tuuli: Mongolian epic 00310 Mongolia Traditional music of the Tsuur 00312 Viet Nam Ca trù singing 00309 4. Four States Parties received preparatory assistance allowing them to elaborate files for five nominations: Kenya (file number 00313), Latvia (file number 00314), Mongolia (file numbers 00310 and 00311) and Viet Nam (file number 00309). Three other States Parties also received preparatory assistance but were not able to submit nominations either before the deadline of 16 March 2009 for the transitional timetable or before the deadline of 31 March 2009 for possible inscription in 2010. An overview of this preparatory assistance is available in the report of the President on the meetings of the Bureau of the Committee (17 December 2008, 7 May 2009, 10 June 2009), document ITH/09/4.COM/CONF.209/INF.5. 5. According to the Operational Directives, the Secretariat verified the completeness of the nominations and in all cases requested additional information to be submitted to the Secretariat before 15 April 2009. Additional information was received for thirteen nominations, but the two nominations from Mexico (file numbers 00316 and 00317) remained incomplete at that time. ITH/09/4.COM/CONF.209/14 page 3 6. With a view to their evaluation by the Committee, nominations shall be examined (paragraph 5 of the Directives). By its Decision 3.COM 10, the Committee requested the Secretariat to propose for each nomination to the Urgent Safeguarding List in 2009 the names of at least two examiners with relevant competence to examine such nominations or requests, it being understood that up to the third session of the General Assembly, and in conformity with Resolution 2.GA 6, such examiners will include, as appropriate, non-governmental organizations that the Committee will have recommended for accreditation as well as experts, centres of expertise and research institutes. 7. Therefore, the Secretariat proceeded to identify four candidate examiners for each of the remaining thirteen nominations. The Secretariat took into account their relevant competence (in terms of domains, regions, language, safeguarding measures, etc.) regional particularities and the need of geographical balance. Before presenting the names to the Bureau, the Secretariat contacted the prospective examiners to inform them about the nature of the work, the subject of the nomination and the submitting States, the time frame and the terms of reference. The Secretariat also verified that they had no conflict of interest or other reason for disqualification (e.g. being a national of the submitting State). 8. At its meeting on 7 May 2009, the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Committee appointed two examiners and one alternate for each of the thirteen nominations. The examiners are identified with the nomination belonging to them in the Annex of the present document. Immediately after the decision of the Bureau, the Secretariat informed all prospective examiners of the decision of the Bureau and established contracts with the appointed examiners. For two of the nominations (00305 and 00312), the examiner appointed by the Bureau was not in a position to carry out the examination and the Secretariat thus contracted the alternates. 9. The Secretariat created a dedicated website with limited access allowing the examiners to access the nomination files and the required documentation. The examiners proceeded to a preliminary examination of the thirteen nominations. Additional information being necessary for all the nominations, requests were sent to the States Parties to send the additional information to the Secretariat before 25 June 2009. Once received, this additional information was made available to the examiners, who finalized their examination reports before 10 August 2009. The reports of the examiners were provided to the States Parties concerned. China subsequently requested that nomination 00304, Maxirap, be evaluated by the Committee during the 2010 cycle, so that it might submit additional information addressing some of the points raised during the examination. 10. In conformity with the Operational Directives, each examination report includes: an assessment of the nominations conformity with the inscription criteria, an assessment of the viability of the element as well as of the feasibility and sufficiency of the safeguarding plan, an assessment of the risk of its disappearing, due, inter alia, to the lack of means for safeguarding and protecting it, or to processes of globalization and social or environmental transformation and a recommendation to the Committee to inscribe or not to inscribe the element (paragraphs 6-8 of the Directives). 11. The twelve nomination files are available to States Parties on the website of the Convention, together with their required documentation (one video, ten photographs). The examination reports and any reactions of the submitting States Parties are annexed to the present document and are also available on the website. ITH/09/4.COM/CONF.209/14 page 4 12. For each nomination, the Secretariat has prepared a draft decision in three parts: the first includes a summary of the element, the second recapitulates, according to the opinions of the two examiners, in what measure the element satisfies the criteria for inscription on the Urgent Safeguarding List as specified in paragraph 1 of the Operational Directives, and the third part presents some further considerations expressed by the examiners that the Committee might wish to include in its decision. 13. The Committee may wish to adopt the following decision: DRAFT DECISION 4.COM 14 1. Recalling Article 17 of the Convention; 2. Further recalling Chapter 1.1 of the Operational Directives concerning inscription on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding; 3. Having examined Document ITH/09/4.COM/CONF.209/14 and the nomination files submitted by the respective States Parties; DRAFT DECISION 4.COM 14.01 The Committee 1. Takes note that Belarus has nominated the Rite of the Kalyady Tsars (Christmas Tsars) for inscription on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, described as follows: The Kalyady Tsars (Christmas Tsars) is a ritual and festive event celebrated in the village of Semezhava in the Minsk region of Belarus. Typical Belarusian New Year celebrations take place according to the old Julian style calendar and are combined with distinctive local performing arts. About 500 men participate annually in the event, of which seven are chosen to play the roles of Kalyady Tsars in the national historical- religious drama Tsar Maximilian. Additional comic characters of the dzed (old