The UNESCO Chair at the 20th Session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage
From December 7 to 13, 2025, the 20th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was held in New Delhi, India. The UNESCO Chair team at our Department was represented by Dr. Hanna Schreiber (Chair of the UNESCO Chair) and Mateusz Zając (a research assistant and Ph.D. candidate), who participated in the meeting of this key body responsible for implementing the 2003 Convention.
The Committee’s deliberations took place at the Red Fort (Lal Qila), a 17th-century red sandstone complex built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (1592–1666). It was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007. For nearly 200 years, the Red Fort served as the main residence of the rulers of the Mughal Empire, and last week it became the setting for debates shaping the future of intangible cultural heritage around the world.
During the session, the Committee approved 54 new inscriptions on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Among the newly inscribed elements were Polish basket-weaving traditions. We are absolutely delighted to have witnessed this inscription and to share in the joy with representatives of the basket-weaving traditions from Nowy Tomyśl and Rudnik nad Sanem! The session also saw the inscription of the Diwali festival onto the Representative List—on this occasion, we extend our heartfelt congratulations to our Indian hosts.
In addition, 11 elements were inscribed on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. The session also brought good news: two elements were transferred from the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding to the Representative List (Al Sadu, traditional weaving skills in the United Arab Emirates, and Hezhen Yimakan storytelling in China), and one element was inscribed on the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices (community-based safeguarding and documentation of the “Lastovo Poklad” carnival custom in Croatia). These inscriptions highlight the tangible results of long-term safeguarding efforts focused on living heritage.
The Committee’s agenda was accompanied by numerous cultural events and expert meetings. On Monday, December 8, Prof. Hanna Schreiber participated in a panel organized by the UNESCO Secretariat, Spain, and the Governing Board of the Forum of NGOs Accredited to UNESCO titled “Living Heritage and Sustainability: The Role of Accredited NGOs in Advancing the UN Development Agenda after MONDIACULT 2025,” which reflected on the outcomes of the October MONDIACULT 2025 conference (Barcelona, Spain). In her remarks, she highlighted the potential of the emerging agenda for managing artificial intelligence in the cultural sector, as affirmed in the MONDIACULT 2025 Final Document. At the same time, she pointed out gaps in the final document regarding the system for protecting intangible cultural heritage and highlighted the role of NGOs in this regard.
On Tuesday, December 9, Prof. Schreiber presented the activities of the UNESCO Chair at our Department and delivered an introductory lecture to the discussion during the First Annual Forum of UNESCO Chairs on Intangible Cultural Heritage, organized at the initiative of Prof. Pier Luigi Petrillo of La Sapienza University in Rome and held under the theme “The Democratization of Intangible Cultural Heritage.” In her presentation, she shared the results of joint research conducted with Dr. Julia Krzesicka-Haberko, an assistant at the UNESCO Chair. The study, titled “Where is ‘democracy’ in the ‘most democratic heritage treaty’? An Investigation of the 2003 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention,” has just been published in the “International Journal of Heritage Studies.” It is based on an analysis of official documents and data from the UN and UNESCO, interviews with state representatives and experts, and employs Elinor Ostrom’s analytical framework to examine how the Convention’s actors understand and use the concept of “democracy” in the context of intangible cultural heritage protection.
Our department’s commitment was further strengthened by Prof. Schreiber on Friday, December 12, in a meeting of the Working Group on Legal Affairs and Policy Development of the Forum of Non-Governmental Organizations Accredited to UNESCO, which she founded together with Prof. Janet Blake in 2024. During the meeting, the Group reviewed its activities over the past year and set priorities for the coming year.
The Committee session was also of great importance to Mateusz Zając, M.A., a doctoral student at the Doctoral School of Social Sciences, who had the opportunity to gain valuable experience by directly observing UNESCO’s decision-making processes and conducting interviews with experts from the UNESCO Global Network of Facilitators, which constituted a significant contribution to his doctoral research.
The next meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee is scheduled for late November/early December 2026 in Xiamen, China. Prior to that, in June 2026, Paris will host a session of the General Assembly of the States Parties to the 2003 UNESCO Convention. For more information, please visit the UNESCO website: ich.unesco.org and the UNESCO Chair website: ichgovernance.com.