The Committee,

1. Having examined document ITH/15/10.COM/6.a,
2. Recalling Articles 7, 29 and 30 of the Convention concerning reports by the States Parties and Chapter V of the Operational Directives, as well as its Decisions 9.COM 5.a and 9.COM 13.a,
3. Expresses its sincere appreciation to the States Parties that submitted periodic reports for the 2015 reporting cycle and requests the Secretariat to inform States Parties concerned by the 2016 cycle at least 12 months prior to the respective deadline for submission of periodic reports in either working language of the Committee or, if possible, in both languages, as well as in other languages;
4. Regrets that it was not able to examine half of the reports expected for the current cycle, invites those States Parties that have not yet submitted their reports, particularly those that are now more than a year overdue, to duly submit them at the earliest convenience and encourages States Parties to fulfil their reporting requirements before submitting new nominations;
5. Welcomes with satisfaction the ‘Overview and summaries of the 2015 reports of States Parties on the implementation of the Convention and on the current status of elements inscribed on the Representative List’ as presented in Annex I of document ITH/15/10.COM/6.a, invites the Secretariat to complete it by mentioning States Parties where appropriate, and, once completed and approved, encourages the States Parties to widely disseminate it among all relevant stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations;
6. Thanks the Russian Federation, a State non party to the 2003 Convention, for having submitted a report on the status of two elements inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and takes note of the progress made in their safeguarding presented in Annex II of document ITH/15/10.COM/6.a;
7. Takes note with appreciation of the increasing attention given by States Parties to the challenges and difficulties they face in implementing the Convention as this can represent a monitoring tool for their own future reports, as well as a guidance for other States facing similar difficulties when searching for possible solutions;
8. Commends the States Parties that take intangible cultural heritage into account in their development plans and strategies and encourages them to further engage themselves in the years to come in the safeguarding of their living heritage as an effective contribution to the sustainable development goals;
9. Reiterates that States Parties are to actively involve the communities not only in the safeguarding of their intangible cultural heritage but also in its monitoring and future developments through active participation in the preparation of their periodic reports, as provided in paragraphs 157 and 160 of the Operational Directives, particularly while reporting on elements inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity;
10. Encourages States Parties to engage in multi-stakeholder consultations in the preparation of their reports and to continue their efforts in including in their periodic reports information provided by relevant non-governmental organizations, research institutes and centres of expertise and invites them to emphasize in their reports the role of non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations in the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage;
11. Takes note of the different experiences, challenges and lessons learned reported by numerous States Parties in the transmission as well as formal and non-formal education of intangible cultural heritage, and encourages all States Parties to take stock of these experiences and continue reflecting on their own approaches and on how to improve them in order to be able to report on these issues in their future reports;
12. Encourages all the States Parties to collaborate actively through bilateral, regional and international exchanges and to reflect such cooperation in the periodic reports;
13. Further encourages States Parties to give more emphasis in their reports to gender roles and responsibilities within intangible cultural heritage practices and the specific measures adopted to safeguard them, especially when reporting on elements inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity;
14. Recalls that the periodic reports submitted to the cycles preceding 2015 were not subject to the guidelines for the treatment of correspondence from the public or other concerned parties with regard to nominations, as introduced in Decisions 7.COM 15 and 9.COM 5.a, and requests the Secretariat to take this into consideration in the preparation of abstracts of the reports submitted in the previous four cycles, particularly to avoid any language which may not be in conformity with the spirit of the Convention;
15. Requests the Secretariat to provide a cumulative focus on measures taken by States Parties concerning the integration of intangible cultural heritage and its safeguarding in cultural and other policies in the overview and summaries of the 2016 reports;
16. Welcomes the Secretariat’s initiative to prepare an abstract for each report submitted under this cycle and requests the Secretariat to continue this practice and prepare abstracts of the reports that will be presented in the 2016 cycle, as well as of those that were submitted in the previous four cycles, and for the latter to make them available on the website of the Convention as soon as they will be ready together with those of the current cycle;
17. Delegates its authority to the Bureau to take a decision on revised ‘Overview and summaries of the 2015 reports of States Parties on the implementation of the Convention and on the current status of elements inscribed on the Representative List’ and to submit it to the General Assembly.