The ICH Convention has the great merit of having demonstrated the organisational capacity of civil society, and I still believe in it. However, today the communities often focus too much on their economic interests, the governments are unfair, and it is rather difficult to compare and consider the contents of the safeguard. Sometime, also the associations involved in the ICH safeguard focus on strengthening their own position in the community rather than on social development. Many governments, let’s be honest, provide rainy money to communities with the excuse of ICH UNESCO Representative List candidacies, so the process becomes commercial and bent to ELECTORAL LOGIC.
Communities and associations should be encouraged to move away from a commercial perspective. A stronger ethical regulation for governments, communities and associations would be a step in the right direction, with a “public education” on the UNESCO Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage of 2003, which would encourage communities, states, and associations towards greater responsibility.
