The Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari (centre), addressing the forum.
Doha: The Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, said yesterday that Qatar has always been keen to preserve its culture, ever since it ratified Unesco’s agreement for Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage 2003.
The Minister was speaking at the opening ceremony of a workshop organised by the ministry on the challenges of documenting intangible cultural heritage in the Arab world. The workshop is organised in cooperation with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (Alesco) and Unesco. The four-day event will see 18 Arab countries participate.
The Minister said that since joining the convention, Qatar along with the UAE, the Sultanate of Oman and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia managed to include falconry as a living human heritage.
He added that cultural heritage belongs to all the people of the world regardless of its original source, stressing that humanity can never compensate for lost heritage of any group, whether that was conveyed in traditions, tales, traditional music or even cookery.
Documenting intangible cultural heritage in particular is a real problem given that it is very difficult to do, the Minister said, calling for better cooperation between Arab countries on defining intangible cultural heritage.
He praised the role of Alesco for holding workshop since it will help Arab countries define the problems that they face in the field, as well as how to overcome them.
QNA
