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Periodic reporting on the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage

The Convention provides in Article 29 that States Parties shall submit to the Committee reports on the legislative, regulatory and other measures taken for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage in their territories. Current page presents the periodic reports and deadlines of a country: Bhutan (see overview on all States Parties).

Periodic reporting on the implementation of the Convention allows States Parties to assess their implementation of the Convention, evaluate their capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, report on their inventories of intangible cultural heritage and update the status of elements inscribed on the Representative List.


On the implementation of the Convention

Each State Party submits its periodic report to the Committee by 15 December of the sixth year following the year in which it deposited its instrument of ratification.

A report will be due by 15/12/2023

Report submitted in 2017 and to be examined by the Committee in 2018

Report submitted on 15/12/2014 and examined by the Committee in 2015 (originally due by 15/12/2011)

Overview

The Department of Culture of the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs is the main competent body in Bhutan. Within this department is the National Library and Archives, acting as the interim body for implementing the 2003 Convention ratified in 2005, until a new unit with responsibility for international affairs is established. A new, dedicated, Intangible Cultural Heritage Law is currently being drafted and planned for submission to Parliament by the end of 2015.
Training in intangible cultural heritage management is also a responsibility of the Department of Culture of the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs.
The Research and Media Division of the National Library and Archives is currently the main documentation centre for intangible cultural heritage. An online database of Bhutan’s culture is currently being completed with the aim of constantly updating data for use by researchers and academics.
From 2011 to 2014, the National Library and Archives conducted a field survey in selected villages and communities of 19 districts of the country as part of a joint project with the International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (ICHCAP) of the Republic of Korea. In this project, field survey investigators listed and documented different elements of intangible cultural heritage within the five domains of the 2003 Convention. The survey results are to be published in book form in 2015.
In order to strengthen human resource capacities for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in the country, three capacity-building activities facilitated by UNESCO trained facilitators and supported by UNESCO/Japanese Funds-in-Trust were organized between 2012 and 2014. The first workshop in 2012 on implementing the 2003 Convention was attended by 28 participants, which comprised district culture officers, as well as focal points from the National Library and Archives, Department of Culture, Folk Heritage Museum, Institute of Language and Cultural Studies and HELVETAS-Swiss Development organization – a non-governmental organisation based in Bhutan with mapping related to intangible cultural heritage as one of its programmes. The second activity on community-based inventorying in 2013 and the third and final workshop organized in 2014 on preparation of nomination files to the Lists of the 2003 Convention were also attended by participants from all relevant agencies.
Examples of bilateral, sub-regional, regional and international cooperation undertaken by Bhutan are the aforementioned project with the ICHCAP category 2 centre and the three training activities supported by UNESCO/Japanese Funds-in-Trust. In addition, a tri-partite agreement has been concluded with Kyushu University (Japan) and the UNESCO Office in New Delhi for drafting three heritage-related laws, including the aforementioned Law on Intangible Cultural Heritage to be completed by late 2015.
Bhutan has one element inscribed on the Representative List, the Mask dance of the drums from Drametse (2008), originally proclaimed in 2005 as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Some specific safeguarding activities have been undertaken for the Mask dance, including training for several hundred dancer teachers in colleges, schools, monasteries and community centres. Mask dance has also been introduced in schools as part of an educational programme while special rehearsals and short-term training sessions are held each year in advance of the annual festivals.

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