Delegates from 110 countries attended Monday the seventh session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, to examine close to 60 candidacies for inscription on the Intangible Heritage Lists.

"I welcome the progress achieved both in the way people think and in their actions," Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova said in her welcoming remark to more than 600 delegates at the Paris-based UNESCO headquarters.

Chaired by Arley Gill of Grenada, the Committee will examine 16 States Parties' reports on their implementation of the 2003 Convention regarding legal, regulatory or other measures taken to safeguard intangible cultural heritage in their countries.

The Committee will, during the five-day session, consider eight candidacies for inclusion on the Urgent Safeguarding List designed to rally international cooperation and assistance to safeguard threatened cultural expressions.

Thirty-six candidacies for inscription on the Representative List will also be examined alongside two candidacies for the Register of Best Safeguarding Practices and 10 International Assistance Requests for safeguarding plans or inventories before the session closes on December 7.

Intangible cultural heritage encompasses practices and living expressions handed down from one generation to the next. It includes oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe as well as the knowledge and skills of traditional crafts.

Twenty-seven elements in 15 countries have been inscribed on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding to date. The Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity numbers 232 elements in 86 countries. Eight programs are featured on the Register of Best Safeguarding Practices.

"The concept of intangible heritage, poorly understood just a few years ago, has gained ground everywhere. There is still work to be done to explain its raison d'etre, its exact scope and the benefits of sharing it, but the voice of sceptics is weakening before the reality on the ground," Bokova underlined.

The commitment of States to safeguard intangible cultural heritage was given concrete expression on Monday with the contribution of $2.25 million to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, with Netherlands donated $324,000, Norway $1,760,000  and Spain $167,000.

These contributions will be used to support six capacity-building programs in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Arab States.