Algeria's contribution to safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in spotlight at SILA

ALGIERS- Algeria has actively participated in the drafting of the 2003's UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the director of the National Centre for Prehistoric, Anthropological and Historical Research, Slimane Hachi, said Tuesday in Algiers.

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Speaking at a meeting entitled "Algerian heritage at the UNESCO," on the sidelines of the 27th International Book Fair of Algiers (SILA), Hachi said Algeria was the first State to ratify the UN Convention on the safeguarding of the intangible heritage, had "significantly" contributed to the drafting of the UNESCO, adopted on 17 October 2003.

Algeria, he said, was "ahead" of other countries in terms of heritage safeguarding and protection, by the promulgation, in 1998, of the law 98-04 on heritage protection, giving a "legal framework" for safeguarding cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible.

Algerian experts, sent by the Algerian State, participated in all the meetings of the drafting committee for the convention, along with other high-level international

experts, the researcher said.

Algeria had ratified the UNESCO convention on the safeguarding of the intangible heritage which, he said, has " strange similarities" with the Algerian law 98-04.

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