Introduction
The Regional Research Centre for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in West and Central Asia, Under the Auspices of UNESCO (Tehran ICH Centre) works towards achieving the following goals in the west and central Asian region:
- to promote the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) - known as the 2003 Convention - and its implementation in west and central Asia.
- to promote public awareness and expert capacities in the field of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
- to strengthen capacities and cooperation in the region for identifying, inventorying documenting and studying Intangible Cultural Heritage to contribute to its safeguarding.
- to promote peace, friendship and synergy in the region.
The geographical area assigned to Tehran ICH Centre includes 24 countries. These countries in alphabetic order are: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, the Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.
“ICH has a deep importance in the everyday lives of people of our region. This competition is aimed at raising awareness of this and at broadening the identification of ICH through the efforts of amateur/professional photographers, while also underlining the important role photography plays in the documentation of ICH.”