On 3 August, the Government of the Republic of Lithuania approved the nomination of Prof. Rimvydas Laužikas for the Expert position in the Evaluation Body of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage for the term 2023-2026. The candidate's election campaign will be run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.
Prof. Rimvydas Laužikas, Dean of the Faculty of Communications at Vilnius University, has many years of experience in working with various UNESCO programs: since 2018 he has been a member of the Lithuanian National Commission for UNESCO, as well as an expert on the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage and many other Lithuanian and international working groups, advisory boards and commissions. The main research fields of Prof. Laužikas are the use of digital technologies for heritage and humanities, heritage information and communication, church archaeology and Lithuanian gastronomic culture.
In order to halt the loss of intangible cultural heritage, UNESCO adopted the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2003 (Lithuania ratified the Convention on 8 December 2004). The Convention's Evaluation Body considers and evaluates all applications submitted by countries for inscription to UNESCO lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage, as well as requests for international support. This interdisciplinary and inter-institutional Body is composed of 12 members: 6 representatives from accredited international non-governmental organizations and 6 scientific experts who represent regional electoral groups and various fields of intangible cultural heritage.
Lithuania is submitting a candidature to the UNESCO Evaluation Body for the first time. The elections will be held during the 17th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage from 28 November to 3 December 2022 in Morocco.