The Territorial Condition for the Inscription of Elements on the UNESCO Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage

A territorial condition for the inscription on the UNESCO Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage was posed by two Decisions adopted by the Committee in Bali. It was thereby established that in future, the Committee will not inscribe on the Lists elements that focus on practices within the territories of States different than the ones nominating the elements. On the one hand, this condition for inscription promotes cooperation amongst State Parties in the field of Intangible Cultural Heritage, since the inscription of an element with practices performed in territories of several States can only be achieved for all the practices at stake through multinational nominations. On the other hand, the condition of territoriality may hinder inscription on the Lists and the corresponding safeguarding of elements, since it is complex to propose multinational nominations. Moreover, this condition reserves the inscription and therefore the safeguarding of one element to only its territorial State, therefore problems may arise if this State has not ratified the Convention of 2003 and so may not be able to nominate the element at stake, or if it does not have sufficient resources to do so, or otherwise does not want to nominate the element in question. Furthermore, the new condition of territoriality prevents a State Party from nominating an element that is located wholly or partly in the territory of a different State, paradoxically even if the latter consents. The condition of territoriality was then applied during the Committee’s eighth session in 2013, in relation to an element nominated by Azerbaijan for inscription on the Urgent Safeguarding List. Yet, the issue arises in regards to the legality of the Decisions of the Committee posing the territorial condition examined here.