Seven young people featured in the ICH and Youth video series © UNESCO - K.Leng

UNESCO Headquarters, Paris – Despite the wide outreach and growing impacts of the 2003 Convention among its 176 State Parties, there is still pressing need to raise awareness on the dynamics of intangible cultural heritage and on its relevance to the world today among the public, in particular the youth. Therefore, a video series with focus on intangible cultural heritage and youth are being developed by the Secretariat of the Convention. A preview of this video series had already been shown during the twelfth session of the Intergovernmental Committee which took place in December last in Jeju, Republic of Korea.

Youth featured in the video were selected from the 60 young participants to the tenth UNESCO Youth Forum that took place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, from 25 to 26 October 2017. Although from different parts of the world, they share a common notion on the intangible cultural heritage. Heritage is closely related to the past, but when it comes to intangible heritage, it may still resonate and even recreate itself in people’s daily lives, giving a sense of identity to the communities and forming connections across people and generations. “Color”, “roots”, “customs” and “memory” … this is how the young people describe what unites their families and communities over time. They feel proud of their ancestors, knowledge and social practices that are being safeguarded, and more importantly, they are aware of the need to keep their heritage alive and pass them on.

The rest of the said video series which feature another six episodes will be released during seventh session of the General Assembly of the State Parties at UNESCO Headquarters in June 2018. Please watch this preview video of ICH and Youth video series.