As Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on Intangible Cultural Heritage in Public and Global Governance, I have spoken out in the debate concerning the draft law on folk ensembles. The UNESCO Chair has published a position paper addressing the draft from the perspective of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, ratified by Poland in 2011.

The position paper emphasises that folk ensembles and traditional culture communities need real and systemic support. However, such support should not be based on top-down definitions, administrative control, or the creation of a parallel safeguarding system focused exclusively on a single category of entities.

The UNESCO Chair points out that the draft law, in its current form, does not respond to the need for a comprehensive implementation of the 2003 UNESCO Convention in Poland. Instead, it may lead to the fragmentation of intangible cultural heritage safeguarding and to the exclusion of many other communities, groups, and individuals who are its actual bearers.

In the position paper, the UNESCO Chair calls for the suspension of work on the draft law in its current form and for the launch of a broad debate on a comprehensive law on the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in Poland. Such a law should also include folk ensembles, but should not exclude other forms of practising, transmitting, and safeguarding living heritage.

The full text of the UNESCO Chair’s position paper (in Polish) is available below.