Criteria

There are criteria for an element of ICH to be listed on the UNESCO Inventory.

• Must be currently practised. To be considered for the inventories the item must have a living community who hold the knowledge or know-how of the item to be carried out, and who are able to pass on the item to future generations. Submissions should provide information on the current and future viability of the item, and will be able to indicate whether the community submitting the item considers it to be endangered, e.g. that it is in danger of dying out without significant change in the current level of transmission.
• Can originate from anywhere and be from anytime, but must include information about the history and transmission within the community concerned. The item does not need to have a minimum age or have been passed down a minimum number of times and it can originate from anywhere and anyone.
• Must be the living practice itself. A submission to the inventories should include information about the associated elements of the item where relevant, but the item of living heritage can not only be the associated tools, instruments, costumes, materials etc. nor only be the outcome, output, creation or result.
• Must be compatible with existing internationally agreed human rights standards. For example, with the rights of others to non-discrimination and equal treatment, privacy, freedom of thought and expression, and participation in social and cultural life.
• Must have free, prior and informed consent from the community. The submission must provide evidence that the practicing community has consented to the item of living heritage being submitted to the inventories.
• Any commercial benefit from the living heritage item, must be for the primary benefit of the community.