Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage: An Inter-disciplinary Approach to International Law

Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) has, in reality, been an important priority and a requirement for a large majority of countries around the globe and their citizens long before the 2003 UNESCO Intangible Heritage Convention (the 2003 Convention) for its safeguarding was adopted. Hence, despite its youth, as a subject matter of international regulation, the ‘problem’ of ICH was the lack of full international recognition of this pre-existing reality. In addition, the pre-existing ICH protection paradigm was one that prioritised monumental cultural forms over local and indigenous ones and that, when it addressed ‘traditional culture’, did so from a heavily researcher-oriented viewpoint.