The event is organized by the UNESCO office in Uzbekistan in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Sport Affairs of Uzbekistan.

The event is a logical continuation of the national seminar “Implementing the UNESCO Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage at the National Level” (Tashkent, July 2012) and sub-regional seminar “Elaborating Nominations to UNESCO Intangible Heritage Lists” (Samarkand, November 2012).

The seminar is held within the project “Strengthening national potential in protecting intangible cultural heritage in Central Asia”, financed by the Norwegian Government.

Uzbekistan is located at the crossroads of ancient civilizations. Its territory covers an ensemble of objects and monuments of cultural heritage, which represent a common history and displays amazing cultural diversity. Among them, a special place is occupied by elements of the intangible cultural heritage, which are the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills - as well as related instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces. This heritage is an integral part of life and culture of Uzbekistan.

The UNESCO Convention 2013 on protection of intangible cultural heritage underlines importance of participation of the community in protection of intangible cultural heritage and to promote cooperation between communities and societies, government and other interested sides.

This event is organized within the framework of UNESCO’s global strategy of capacity building in the field of preserving intangible cultural heritage and is aimed at strengthening national capacity to implement the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

During the seminar the participants will discuss issues of preparation and development of an inventory of intangible cultural heritage with the participation of communities, including issues of identification of the elements of intangible cultural heritage in line with theprovisions of the 2003 Convention.