Intangible Cultural Heritage: Issues

The problematic field of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) stirred enormous interest worldwide, which was particularly enhanced over the last ten years, after the General Conference of UNESCO accepted a special Convention on ICH. The adoption of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en\&pg=00006), hereinafter called Convention 2003, was an extremely important step in this field undertaken by the member states of this international organization. Both Bulgaria and Slovenia were involved in the process of activated interest in the issues of ICH. An important element of the joint work in this sphere was the Seminar of experts in intangible cultural heritage of Southeastern Europe organized by the Bulgarian state in 2007 in Arbanassi, Bulgaria, with the kind support of UNESCO office in Venice. The Seminar led to the creation of the first network of experts of its kind in the region that involved participants from both countries.