Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore: Period of Establishment and Implementation

This article examines, the preparatory processes and the effective implementation period of the Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore prepared in 1989 by UNESCO, the United Nations institution in charge of education, science and culture under the Convention for the safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. UNESCO s work on the protection of cultural heritage started with the “Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict” adopted in 1954 and continued with the “Convention on Measures to be Taken to Prevent and Prohibit the Illegal Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property” adopted in 1970. The fact that UNESCO focused all its attention on tangible cultural heritage with the “Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage” adopted in 1972 has become a subject of criticism in the international community. These criticisms gained momentum with the proposal for the protection of folklore products in addition to the protection of material cultural heritage in the declaration prepared under the leadership of the Bolivian Govern-ment in 1973 and was recorded as the Bolivia Declaration. From 1973 until 1989, when the Recommendation was adopted, it was observed that there were intense discussions on how folklore should be protected. While, the intellectual property aspect of folklore was emphasised within the scope of WIPO s legislation, UNESCO continued to work on the definition, identification, protection and dissemination of folklore. As a matter of fact, with the decision taken in 1982, the “Intangible Cultural Heritage Sub-programme” was established in 1985. Starting in 1973 with the Bolivian Declaration and continuing with the unit established within UNESCO in 1985 and the awareness raised, these studies resulted in the “Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore” adopted in 1989. This Recommendation is the first international document for the protection of folklore and one of the important steps towards the protection of intangible cultural heritage. The Recommendation covers issues such as the definition, identification and protection of folklore and ensuring international co-operation in this field. In the text, folklore, which until then had been referred to as “works of unknown authorship”, “expressions of folklore”, “intangible cultural heritage”, “oral heritage” in various documents, was defined. After the 1972 Convention, in contrast to the international effort for the protection of folklore, it was observed that the Recommendation did not attract sufficient attention from UNESCO member states after its adoption in 1989. Thereupon, regional seminars were organised in different parts of the world between 1995 and 1999 to promote and disseminate the Recommendation. As a conclusion of these seminars, it was determined that the Recommendation had not achieved the desired suc-cess. At the 1999 Washington Conference, the reasons for this were emphasised and the measures to be taken were evaluated. Deficiencies such as the fact that the Recommendation contains terms that are perceived differently in different regions, that there are no explanations for its implementation, that it addresses only the archiving of folklore products, and that it is not as valid and visible as a convention were identified. Despite these shortcomings, it was considered important that the Recommendation and the subsequent regional meetings enabled different states to share their problems or experiences in the field of folklore in the international arena. When we look at the results of the regional meetings, we see that the idea that some cultures are under pressure from other cultures, that there is a tendency towards uniformisation due to globalisation and that many old traditions and folklore products are about to be lost, and that some solutions should be proposed on the international arena to prevent this, became prominent. After the adoption of the Recommendation in 1989, the Living Human Treasures Programme, which was implemented in 1994, and the Programme for the Proc-lamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, which started in 1997, revealed the importance of intangible cultural heritage and the need to protect it with stronger documents just like tangible heritage. These determinations and practices have entered a new phase with the Convention for the safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage adopted in 2003.