Morocco was elected, in the person of its permanent ambassador to UNESCO Samir Addahre, unanimously by the 24 Member States that make up the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the UN organization.

The Kingdom will, hence, chair the 17th session of this committee, which will be held from November 28 to December 3, 2022.

The 24 current member countries of the committee are Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Panama, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Togo as well as the Kingdom of Morocco.

The core functions of the Committee are to promote the objectives of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, provide guidance on best practices and make recommendations on measures for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage.

The Committee examines requests submitted by States Parties for the inscription of intangible heritage on the Lists as well as proposals for programmes and projects. The Committee is also in charge of granting international assistance.

The Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage prepares the implementation of the Convention, mainly through the elaboration of a set of operational directives and of a plan for the use of the resources of the Fund for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, established by Article 25 of the Convention. It submits these documents for approval to the General Assembly.