Bangladesh has been elected to the UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Intergovernmental Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), the international forum of immaterial manifestations of culture, for 2022-2026.
The country was elected to the committee of the international forum for four years during the ninth general meeting of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention on ICH on Wednesday (July 6). The general meeting was held at UNESCO’s Headquarters in Paris of France with the participation of member countries from July 5 to July 7.
Apart from Bangladesh, other countries elected from the Asia-Pacific region are India, Vietnam and Malaysia.
Faisal Hasan, senior information officer of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, confirmed the news to the media on Thursday (July 7).
Khondker M Talha, Bangladesh Ambassador to France and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to UNESCO; Md. Abul Monsur, Secretary of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs; Md. Fahimul Islam, Joint Secretary of the ministry, participated in the General Meeting on behalf of Bangladesh.
Out of 180 member countries in the six electoral groups of ICH, 12 countries contested for the vacant seats. Apart from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Malaysia and Thailand contested for the four vacant posts in the Electoral Group-4 of the Asia-Pacific Region. Earlier, Iran and Pakistan were also scheduled to contest, later withdrew at the last minute.
Faisal Hasan said that the decision to contest this election was taken by the Ministry of Culture Affairs in 2020 and it was informed to the UNESCO authorities through the Bangladesh Embassy in France.
Bangladesh had achieved another success in the international arena following the country’s election to the Intergovernmental Committee on ‘Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage’ at the 2003 Convention.
As a result, Bangladesh will be able to play a vital role in preserving the immaterial cultural heritage of the member countries of the 2003 UNESCO Convention.
However, the country has already been playing a positive and constructive role in fulfilling UNESCO’s core mandates in the fields of education, culture, science, communication and information.
Intangible heritage consists of immaterial intellectual wealth like folklore, custom, belief, tradition, knowledge and language.
Currently Bangladesh has some intangible heritages on UNESCO’s list. The Historic 7th March Speech of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is one of Bangladesh’s intangible heritages as an ICH.
The Historic speech has been inscribed in UNESCO’s International Register as a ‘Memory of the World’ in 2017. Some other intangible heritages on the UNESCO’s list are Baul song, traditional art of Jamdani weaving, Mongol Shobhajatra and traditional art of Shitol Pati weaving of Sylhet.
