The 3rd proclamation of Masterpieces of the Intangible Heritage by UNESCO took place in November 2005 and then this organization made public their decision of it being the last one as it was stated in the Article 31.3 of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage wich entered into force on 20th April 2006.

The Convention specifies the relationship between the Convention and the Proclamation in a transitional clause : the Article 31.1 stipulates that the Intergovernmental Committee “shall incorporate in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity the items proclaimed ‘Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity’ before the entry into force of this Convention”.

But it also says that a Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as well as a List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding shall be established, kept up to date and published by an Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, hereinafter referred to as “the Committee”, upon the proposal of the States Parties concerned.

In the Second Session of the Committee, which took place in Tokyo (Japan) from 3 to 7 September 2007, important decisions were adopted one of them being the submission to the General Assembly for approval the provisions of the operational directives for the inscription of intangible cultural heritage on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Another one was the transitional timetable for the first inscriptions on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2009.

It’s stated that from now on, the States Parties will be the ones that select their own nominations and make their proposals to the Committee to inscribe or not such elements in a list, only one every year.
States Parties are also encouraged to jointly submit multi-national nominations when an element is found on the territory of more than one State Party. In this case, many nominations may be proposed.

It seems also that the first files with nominations will be accepted from now until August 2008 and the final resolution about the ones that will be inscribed in the Representative List will be published by the Committee in 2009.

The Candidature of the Galician-Portuguese Oral Traditions, which had been submitted for the 3rd proclamation jointly by Spain and Portugal, has got now a new opportunity.
According to the reports sent to our governments by the Unesco referring to the candidature:
“The keen spirit of dialogue running through this candidature and the desire to reinforce and even establish communication across borders make this multinational candidature particularly valuable.” And also “…the diversity of the file attests to the great variety of cultural expressions considered and to the care taken by the authors not to overlook any aspect of the oral heritage of the regions”
The same report concluded: “… recommends that the file be redesigned with a view to later proclamation. We would emphasize the keen heritage interest of the traditions presented by the candidature, which overall meet the criteria required by Unesco.”
Also Mr Rieks Smeets, Chief of the Intangible Heritage Section, in his letter to the Permanet Delegations of Spain and Portugal to UNESCO submitted in January 2006 recommended that, once both countries have ratified the 2003 Convention, they can “resubmit a candidature file on the same subject with necessary modifications”.

Both, Spain and Portugal, have already ratified this Convention (although Portugal hasn’t submitted their ratification to UNESCO yet).

So, in the Cultural and Pedagogical Association Ponte…nas ondas! we consider that this is a new opportunity to achieve an international recognition to the value of the Galician-Portuguese Intangible Heritage and also a new oportunity of making our governments and public and private institutions aware of the importance of taking urgent decisions in favour of its safeguarding. We think that the huge work previously evolved for this Candidature is of great value and it must be reused with the necessary corrections, as recommended by UNESCO.

The first step is to ask from the Portuguese government his commitment with this intangible heritage and so their intention of proposing it for being inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. But again, the implication of the Spanish Government is absolutely necessary. We would like to remember that the Spanish Parliament had supported this Candidature by unanimity for the 2005 proclamations, and that important people such as Federico Mayor Zaragoza or Jose Saramago had also expressed their firm support then.

The nowadays president of the Autonomous Galician Government expressed in the Galician Parliament, in the session of the 8th March, his intention of promoting again this candidature.

So, from Ponte… nas ondas! we hope with great expectation that all these necessary steps are taken urgently and that the commitment of the Governments of Galiza, Spain and Portugal is clearly in favour of this Common Intangible Heritage.