The Ministry of Culture’s (MoC) participation in Unesco’s celebration of the 20th anniversary of the 2003 Convention for the Preservation and Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage, through a cultural heritage exhibition held from April 15 to 19 in Paris, provided an opportunity for visitors to learn about Qatari heritage.
In this context, Simona Mirella Micolese, president of the Unesco General Conference, said: "In our celebration of the cultural heritage of Qatar, we also pay tribute to the richness of the cultural heritage of other member states from the Arabian Peninsula and beyond, which participate in these multinational nominations, as evidence of their common roots and human value."
She thanked the Qatari MoC and the Permanent Delegation of Qatar to Unesco for the opportunity to share these touching moments.
Vera al-Khoury, president of the Executive Board of Unesco, said: "Qatar displays its cultural assets and thriving arts to visitors who come from all over the world, through museums, monuments, markets and mosques. They experience this wonderful mixture of heritage, tradition and modernity."
Lazar Assoumou, director of World Heritage at Unesco, said: "Unesco welcomes this opportunity to shed light on the richness and diversity of Qatar’s cultural heritage, which some of us have previously had the pleasure of knowing and visiting. Qatar, with its history spanning thousands of years, and its living culture, offers a rich and vibrant heritage that emerges from ancestral traditions, through art and knowledge that is passed down from generation to generation."
The exhibition expressed the distinguished position that Qatar attaches to intangible cultural heritage, and its tireless work in preserving its heritage, as Qatar has hastened to register “The Majlis,” and “Arabic Coffee,” in the Representative List of the World Human Heritage by Unesco, and the MoC has been working with a group of countries for months to prepare the “Bisht” file to register it on the list as well.
