On 9 January 2024 the Regional Research Centre for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in West and Central Asia, under the auspices of UNESCO (Tehran ICH Centre) held her first round of meetings at the permanent premises of the Centre with the ECO Cultural Institute.
The meeting hosted the President of the of ECO Cultural Institute, H.E. Dr Saad Khan, the Director General of the Tehran ICH Centre, Dr Atusa Momeni, and representatives from both participating entities.
In addition to an initial introduction, the meeting was organised with the main purpose of discussing modalities of joint cooperation between the ECO Cultural Institute and the Tehran ICH Centre, given their main point of convergence: their Member States.
After a tour of the historical premises of the Tehran ICH Centre by H.E. the President of ECO Cultural institute, the meeting was initiated with the welcoming remarks of the Director General of the Centre, who then continued her talk by introducing the Centre, emphasising the need for the two institutions to join forces to harness the power of cultural diplomacy for peace and sustainable development in the region. She, emphasised the need to use intangible cultural heritage as a means of achieving unity in diversity in the region.
The President of the ECO Cultural Institute also expressed the need to invest in joint efforts for safeguarding and promoting valuable instances of intangible cultural heritage of the peoples of the region with special emphasis on food, language, music and dress code, introducing these four important manifestations of intangible cultural heritage as elements in need of urgent safeguarding in view of their vulnerable nature due to the growing trend of globalisation that aimed mainly at cultural unification rather than promoting the diversity of cultures.
Holding joint training workshops and seminars, resorting to the soft power of intangible cultural heritage for promoting peace and sustainability in the region, and furthering joint cooperation between the two entities were among the decisions of this meeting.
