Participants of the Preparatory Committee Meeting

Following on the footsteps of our November 2020 Silk Roads ICH Networking Program meeting, UNESCO-ICHCAP with the assistance of IICAS invited seven individuals to serve on our preparatory committee. The members are Jan Hladik (Head, UNESCO Tashkent Office)—Legal Advisor, Alisher Ikramov (Director, Development of Int’l Cooperation), Kaloyan Nikolov (President, European Association of Folklore Festivals), Eunkyung Oh (Professor, Eurasia Turk Institute of Dongduk University), Seong-Yong Park (Assistant Director-General, ICHCAP), Jahangir Selimkhanov (Head, Department of the Azerbaijan National Conservatoire), Chinara Bosunbaeva proxy for Sabira Soltongeldieva (Secretary-General, NATCOM of the Kyrgyz Republic for UNESCO).

The meeting, held on 30 March 2021, was divided into six major parts to discuss matters related to governance, legal frameworks, network activities, partnerships, and membership eligibility among other topics. Overall the meeting was a success, and we were able to agree on all but one item put on the table. The one outlier had to do with our inaugural events for later this year. There are a number of possibilities, but, depending on the COVID situation, we need to wait to see what the most practical ideas may be.

The preparatory committee will meet again later this year in May. We hope that the next meeting will be as fruitful as the last one.