18.COM approves 6 Elements for Urgent Safeguarding

Six elements under Urgent Safeguarding List and 56 under Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Humanity have been considered and approved during the ongoing 18th Session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of ICH in Kasane, Botswana.

This was confirmed to Botswana Guardian late night on Wednesday by National ICH Expert, Bathusi Losolobe, who forms part of the Botswana Delegation that is headed by Dineo Phuti and comprises Lame Gaobakwe.

The six countries which submitted applications for Urgent Safeguarding and their approved Elements are the Syrian Arab Republic – to protect their ‘Traditional Syrian Glass Blowing’; secondly Turkiye – ‘Traditional Knowledge, Methods and Practices Concerning Olive Cultivation’.

Thirdly, Djibouti was approved protect ‘Xeedho’; fourthly, Malaysia ‘Mek Mulung’; fifth, Mozambique protected ‘Ingoma Ya Mapiko’ and lastly, Paraguay – ‘Ancestral and Traditional Techniques for the elaboration of the ‘Poncho Para’i de 60 Listas’, from the City of Piribebuy, Republic of Paraguay.

Losolobe said that Botswana had not submitted any application for consideration by the 18.COM, which was officially opened by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi on Monday in Kasane.

The session’s proceedings started earnestly on Tuesday with the committee adopting the agenda, and then receiving the report of the Secretariat, regarding its activities from January 2022 to 30 June 2023.

Some of the Committee’s milestones for the year under review included conducting capacity building trainings, one of which was in Sharjah, UAE on global facilitators network. It also capacitated 2003 Convention Focal Persons by training them on the new reporting system of the Convention especially on compiling periodic reports.

One of the local beneficiaries of this training is Tshireletso Modikwa who was trained in Algiers, Algeria and was succeeded by Lame Gaobakwe as Focal Person responsible for the Convention in Botswana when he transferred to National Arts Council of Botswana.

The 18th session also considered financial requests from Member States. There was also a report of the Evaluation body – a sub-committee of the Inter-Governmental Committee made up of experts representing NGOs and State Parties.

Its work is to examine Nomination Files of Representative Lists and Urgent Safeguarding Lists as well as Register of Best Safeguarding Practices. They also examine financial requests or international assistance.

This sub-committee presented its report and their findings in nominations after which the Convention began in earnest by considering the Nomination Files. Six (6) files for Urgent Safeguarding List were considered and all approved.

One of them even requested emergency financial assistance and was approved. Fifty-six (56) files on Representative List of ICH in Humanity were also all considered by the Evaluation Body and recommended for approval by the Committee.