At the first session of the “Silk Roads Intangible Heritage Seminar Series” held in Tehran by the ECO Cultural Institute, Atousa Momeni emphasized the central role of communities in safeguarding and transmitting intangible cultural heritage, highlighting the need to strengthen community-based approaches and shift toward more direct, people-centered cooperation across the ECO region.
Tehran – June 30, 2026 (9 Tir 1405) – At the first session of the “Silk Roads Intangible Heritage Seminar Series” on “Regional Cooperation for Safeguarding Endangered Intangible Cultural Heritage in ECO Member States,” participants underscored the importance of strengthening community-based approaches to safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and highlighted the central role of communities in its continuity and transmission.
The session was held on June 30, 2026 in Tehran, hosted by the ECO Cultural Institute, and brought together experts, researchers, and cultural heritage professionals from ECO member states.
In this event, Dr. Atousa Momeni, Director-General of the Regional Research Centre for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in West and Central Asia under the auspices of UNESCO (Tehran ICH Centre), emphasized the living and dynamic nature of intangible cultural heritage. She stated that intangible cultural heritage is not a static set of cultural elements, but a living process embedded in the daily life of communities, continuously recreated and transmitted through lived experience, traditional knowledge, and collective memory.
Referring to the global shift in cultural heritage approaches following the adoption of the 2003 UNESCO Convention, she noted that the Convention has introduced a paradigm shift by placing communities, groups, and individuals at the center of the creation, transmission, and safeguarding of cultural heritage, moving from an object-based approach to a people-centered and process-oriented framework.
Momeni further stated that a significant gap still exists between policy and implementation in this field, noting that communities are often placed in the position of passive beneficiaries rather than active agents, whereas safeguarding is fundamentally based on their intrinsic and participatory role.
She stressed that safeguarding intangible cultural heritage is not merely an external or institutional process, but one that is rooted in the social and cultural structures of communities, and that formal institutions should act as facilitators and supporters rather than direct interveners.
She further emphasized that the Silk Roads represent not merely a historical route, but a living cultural continuum that continues through cultural interactions and human networks across the ECO region.
In another part of her remarks, she pointed to contemporary challenges facing intangible cultural heritage, including intergenerational discontinuity, rapid social and urban transformation, and cultural homogenization in the digital environment.
She further emphasized the need to transform cooperation models in the field of cultural heritage, stating that the future of safeguarding requires a shift from purely institutional cooperation toward direct community-to-community collaboration and the development of regional community-based networks.
The session concluded with an emphasis that intangible cultural heritage is not a form of property, but a shared responsibility among communities and generations, and its continuity relies on the active engagement of its bearers and transmitters.