Dear friends,

Today, Thursday 20 April, the UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage comes into force. By 31st March, the Convention had been ratified by 46 countries, greatly exceeding the 30 signatures required for ratification. You can read more about the Convention at http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=2225&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

News about the Convention is available in the April 2006 UNESCO newsletter "Intangible Heritage Messenger". You can download this newsletter at 
http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=30721&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

The newsletter lists the 46 signatory states, reports on some regional activities, and gives a list of dates for key upcoming activities. If your country has not yet signed the Convention, you might like to contact the National Commission for UNESCO to ask about progress on ratification.

There is a report in the newsletter about an Expert Meeting held in Tokyo last month on community involvement in safeguarding ICH. The meeting developed advice for the first session of the General Assembly of the State Parties to the ICH, to be held in Paris in June. More information on the meeting, and on the role of Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU), can be found at http://www.accu.or.jp/ich/index2.html?04.

best wishes,
Margaret Florey
-- 
Dr Margaret Florey
Senior Lecturer
Linguistics Program
School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics
Monash University
Victoria 3800
Australia
Tel: +61 (0)3 9905-2237
Fax: +61 (0)3 9905-5437
Email: Margaret.Florey@arts.monash.edu.au
Home page: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ling/florey/

Studies in Language Endangerment
Web Site: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ling/pglangen/

Maluku Endangered Languages Project
Email: Maluku@arts.monash.edu.au
Fax: +61 (0)3 9905-8492
Web Site http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ling/maluku/

