Cultural traditions in Portugal, Uganda and Ukraine added to UNESCO heritage protection list

With the current session of the United Nations committee tasked with safeguarding intangible cultural heritage under way, three cultural elements in Portugal, Uganda and Ukraine have been inscribed to the United Nations list of cultural traditions in need of urgent protection.

The meeting in Ethiopia of parties to the international convention is designed to preserve the world’s intangible cultural heritage.

Five nominations for inscription on the list have been examined by representatives of 24 States Parties to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, who form the committee.

The three new additions to list of intangible cultural heritage include Portugal Bisalhães tradition of making black pottery and traditional Ma'di Bowl Lyre music and dance, which is one of the oldest cultural practices of the Madi people of Uganda.

Also added to the list are Cossack songs sung by communities of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, which tell stories about the tragedy of war and personal relationships of Cossack soldiers.

Intangible cultural heritage, according UNESCO, encompasses practices and living expressions are handed down from one generation to the next.

To be inscribed by the Committee elements must comply with a series of criteria, including contributing to spreading the knowledge of intangible cultural heritage and promoting awareness of its importance. The Urgent Safeguarding List aims at taking appropriate measures for those intangible cultural heritage expressions or manifestations whose viability – that is whose continuous recreation and transmission – is threatened.

Only those countries that have ratified the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage can present elements for inscription on the lists. The updated The Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity presently number 339 inscribed elements.

The current session of the Committee will end on 2 December.