CONFERENCE ON NON-MATERIAL CULTURAL HERITAGE PRESERVATION ISSUES

On October 23-24, a scientific and practical symposium is held in Yerevan entitled “Traditional Oral Heritage: Non-Material Cultural Heritage Preservation, Legal Regulation Issues and the International Expertise.” It is organized under the aegis of the UNESCO Convention on the preservation of the non-material cultural heritage, at the initiative of the RA Ministry of Culture. Experts from Armenia, Georgia, Belarus take part in this event. Armenia is represented at the symposium not only through art historians and ethnographers, but also by representatives of the National Assembly, Ministry of Justice, Constitutional Court of Armenia.
The symposium participants will focus on the identification of cultural, and in particular, non-material cultural heritage, the ways of the relevant legal framework regulations, the advantages and challenges of the cultural globalization, and other issues.
It should be noted that the non-material cultural heritage covers our entire ethnographic, folkloric heritage, including the traditional household items, kitchenware and games.
“Two years ago Armenia acquired membership to the participating countries of the Convention on the preservation of the non-material cultural heritage, and quite naturally we also committed to certain responsibilities, which among others include the issue of entry into the legal framework. “By the end of this year the Ministry of Culture is planning to submit a draft law on the preservation of non-material cultural heritage,” said Karine Khodikyan, the RA Ministry of Culture Vice Minister and Chair of the Organizing Committee, in a talk to journalists. According to her, the adoption of this law mainly pursues the objective of carrying the issue of the cultural heritage preservation and passing it on to new generations into the legal framework. “Today we face a problem of protecting our national image and characteristics,” she said.