“The contribution of UNESCO Member States of South-Eastern Europe for the dissemination and implementation of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003)”

On 12 and 13 December 2015 the International forum dedicated to the 70th Anniversary of UNESCO was held in Sofia. The topic was “The contribution of UNESCO Member States of South-Eastern Europe for the dissemination and implementation of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003)”.

The participants and guests of the event had the opportunity to see a demonstration of the folk festival “Surva” / “Surova folk feast in Pernik region” in front of the National Theatre “Ivan Vazov” in the capital. Thus Bulgaria welcomes the inscription of this feast in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO.The forum was opened by the Director-General of UNESCO, Ms Irina Bokova.  Was also attended by the Director of the Regional Bureau for science and culture in Europe, Ms. Ana Luiza Thompson-Flores, experts on ICH from 14 countries of South-East Europe, academia representatives from Bulgaria and foreign diplomats.

Greetings to the participants was headed by the Deputy Minister of Culture, Mr. Boil Banov, the Deputy Minister of the Foreign Affairs, Mr. Roumen Alexandrov and Deputy Minister of Education and science, Prof. Kostadin Kostadinov, the rector of the University of Information Technology and Library Prof. Stoyan Dentchev, the Deputy Mayor of Sofia, Mr. Todor Chobanov, Assoc. Prof. Joanna Spassova as representative of the president of BAS, Acad. Stefan Vodenicharov.

At the official ceremony, Ms Irina Bokova, the Director General of UNESCO awarded to the mayor of the town of Chiprovtsi with a certificate of UNESCO for The tradition of the carpet making in Chiprovtsi.  Ms.Bokova awarded also the winners in the National Youth Competition for the presentation of the Bulgarian elements and objects in the representative list of UNESCO’s intangible and tangible and natural heritage, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Organization.

The science part of the forum was held successfully in the previously announced two panels in the halls of ULSIT and BAS, as the topics of the panels were: “Measures taken in the countries from SEE for the implementation of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003)” and panel 2:”The role of local communities in the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage”. All the presentations of the participants will be published in a special edition.

This event mark the end of the series of initiatives dedicated to the 70th anniversary of UNESCO during 2015.