ICH and Risk multinational project 2y5x4n

The General Assembly of the 2003 UNESCO Convention prioritized this topic and approved its implementation at the 13th DAC, held in Oaxaca, Mexico, in October 2018. 4q505z

The Regional Centre for Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Latin America (CRESPIAL) has identified the relationship between ICH and risk as a priority topic. In this context, a multinational project has been developed to address ICH related to natural disasters, armed conflicts, and, more recently, health emergencies.

The project is based on UNESCO definitions and guidelines, including the 2003 Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage, the strategy to strengthen UNESCO’s work on protecting culture and promoting cultural pluralism in the event of armed conflict, and the ethical principles for safeguarding ICH.

The project seeks to understand ICH’s role in preventing, mitigating, and retaliating against natural disasters, armed conflicts, and health emergencies. It also analyses how these emergencies affect communities’ cultural expressions.

The project focuses on three types of emergencies:

• Natural disasters: earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, etc.
• Armed conflicts: forced displacement, violence, etc.
• Health emergencies: pandemics such as COVID-19.

The project takes a broad approach, considering PCI’s threats and vulnerabilities in emergency contexts and its capacity to foster social recovery and resilience.

The project aims to:

• Strengthen the capacity of CRESPIAL member states to identify, assess, and address risks affecting ICH in emergencies.
• Promote the integration of ICH into risk reduction and emergency management policies and strategies.
• Encourage community participation in safeguarding ICH in emergency contexts.
• Raise awareness about the importance of ICH for social recovery and resilience.

The document “Intangible Cultural Heritage and Armed Conflict” is a precursor to the multinational project PCI and Risk, which explores the risks inherent to armed conflict for Intangible Cultural Heritage in Latin America to produce relevant recommendations to address a problem whose specific literature is predominantly inscribed in the understanding of the risks of conflict situations for cultural assets inscribed in the dimension of tangible heritage.

In this sense, the document begins by reviewing several cases in countries in the region. Then, it offers some reflections and recommendations on approaching and thinking about the issues in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The PCI Emergency Project was approved by the XVI DAC in 2021 and aims to strengthen the capacities of participating countries in emergency prevention and response. The project is in the implementation stage, with the participation of the Focal Nuclei of Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay. It should be noted that Argentina and Uruguay present a bi-national project.