Signed by 170 states, the 2003 UNESCO Intangible Heritage Convention aims to protect the traditional practices, knowledge, and skills that form the mosaic of a community's culture. Blake and Lixinski assemble a team of experts to examine the landmark treaty article-by-article, in a text of vital importance to anyone working in the field.

This book critically analyses the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO's latest and ground-breaking treaty in the area of cultural heritage protection. Intangible cultural heritage is broadly understood as the social processes that inform our living cultures, and our social cohesion and identity as communities and peoples. On the basis of this conception, the Treaty proposes to turn our understanding of how, for whom, and why heritage is safeguarded on its head, by putting communities, groups and individuals at the centre of the safeguarding process. The commentary, written by leading experts in the field from all continents and multiple disciplines, provides an authoritative guide to interpreting and implementing not only this Treaty, but also its ripple effects on how we think about cultural heritage and our experience with it as a part of our living cultures. This book is of interest to lawyers, policy-makers, anthropologists, cultural diplomacy specialists, archaeologists, cultural heritage studies experts, and, foremost, the people who practice and enact this heritage.

This book critically analyses the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO's latest and ground-breaking treaty in the area of cultural heritage protection. Intangible cultural heritage is broadly understood as the social processes that inform our living cultures, and our social cohesion and identity as communities and peoples. On the basis of this conception, the Treaty proposes to turn our understanding of how, for whom, and why heritage is safeguarded on its head, by putting communities, groups and individuals at the centre of the safeguarding process. The commentary, written by leading experts in the field from all continents and multiple disciplines, provides an authoritative guide to interpreting and implementing not only this Treaty, but also its ripple effects on how we think about cultural heritage and our experience with it as a part of our living cultures. This book is of interest to lawyers, policy-makers, anthropologists, cultural diplomacy specialists, archaeologists, cultural heritage studies experts, and, foremost, the people who practice and enact this heritage.

This book provides both a general introduction to UNESCO's 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and its historical development, as well as a detailed article-by-article analysis of the Convention's provisions. The general introduction to the Convention sets out the historical background of normative and operational activities within UNESCO relating to safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, the relevant activities of other intergovernmental bodies especially the IP-related work of the World Intellectual Property Organization, the wider legal context within which the Convention has been developed and other general questions such as the treatment of indigenous heritage and traditional knowledge. The drafting history of the Convention is also presented, along with a brief overview of the instrument that includes discussion of its approach to safeguarding and the mechanisms it employs. This section also looks at the key notion of 'safeguarding' as opposed to the more traditional usage 'protection' and considers the significance of this choice of terminology. The article-by-article analysis covers also the drafting history of each article as well as a close comparison with the equivalent articles of UNESCO's 1972 Convention on the Protection of the World's Cultural and National Heritage that served as a model for the 2003 Convention noting, in particular, the significant departures of this more recent text to take account of the special needs of intangible cultural heritage. The centrality of the key notion of safeguarding and, where appropriate, questions relating to implementation and anticipated future developments in the law and practice related to this Convention are also considered.

Almost fifty years have passed since the adoption of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (the UNESCO World Heritage Convention). With its 194 States Parties, it is the most widely ratified convention within the family of UNESCO treaties on the protection of cultural heritage. The success of this Convention and its almost universal acceptance by the international community of states is due to the great appeal that recognising certain properties as "world heritage" has for national governments. Since the publication of the first Commentary, new problems have arisen in the management of world heritage sites. It has become increasingly difficult to properly monitor the conservation of the ever-growing mass of sites inscribed in the World Heritage List, and to resolve disputes over the formal designation of contested world heritage properties - a problem that has led to the withdrawal of the United States and Israel from UNESCO. New frontiers are now being explored for the expansion of the world heritage idea over marine areas beyond national jurisdiction, and the monopoly of the State in the identification, delineation, and presentation of world heritage properties is being increasingly challenged in the name of indigenous peoples' rights and by local communities claiming ownership over contested cultural sites. At the same time, the regime of world heritage protection has infiltrated other areas of international law, especially international economic law, investment arbitration, and the area of international criminal law. This second edition critically examines the World Heritage Convention against this dynamic evolution of international heritage law to help academics, lawyers, diplomats, and officials interpret and apply the norms of the Convention after half a century of uninterrupted implementing practice by State Parties and Treaty Bodies.

In Making Intangible Heritage, Valdimar Tr. Hafstein—folklorist and official delegate to UNESCO—tells the story of UNESCO's Intangible Heritage Convention. In the ethnographic tradition, Hafstein peers underneath the official account, revealing the context important for understanding UNESCO as an organization, the concept of intangible heritage, and the global impact of both. Looking beyond official narratives of compromise and solidarity, this book invites readers to witness the diplomatic jostling behind the curtains, the making and breaking of alliances, and the confrontation and resistance, all of which marked the path towards agreement and shaped the convention and the concept. Various stories circulate within UNESCO about the origins of intangible heritage. Bringing the sensibilities of a folklorist to these narratives, Hafstein explores how they help imagine coherence, conjure up contrast, and provide charters for action in the United Nations and on the ground. Examining the international organization of UNESCO through an ethnographic lens, Hafstein demonstrates how concepts that are central to the discipline of folklore gain force and traction outside of the academic field and go to work in the world, ultimately shaping people's understanding of their own practices and the practices themselves. From the cultural space of the Jemaa el-Fna marketplace in Marrakech to the Ise Shrine in Japan, Making Intangible Heritage considers both the positive and the troubling outcomes of safeguarding intangible heritage, the lists it brings into being, the festivals it animates, the communities it summons into existence, and the way it orchestrates difference in modern societies.

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