UNESCO declares Ukrainian Kobzar-Lirnyk tradition cultural heritage of humanity

Ukraine's Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications reported the information.

On December 5, at the 19th session of theUNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, held in the capital of Paraguay, Asunción, Ukraine's nomination The Program for the Safeguarding of the Kobzar-Lirnyk Tradition was included in the register of best safeguarding practices for intangible cultural heritage.

"For us, this is an acknowledgment of our values, culture, uniqueness, and identity. This achievement will become part of our great victory. The unprovoked war by Russia is taking the lives of Ukrainian artists: 133 have died, including six members of the Kobzar guilds who stood up to defend Ukraine. Today, Russia, like the imperial and Stalinist regimes before it, is destroying everything related to Ukrainian culture, including the kobzar tradition and the bearers of this living heritage. But despite all attempts to strip Ukrainians of their roots, our culture attests to our resilience," said Mykola Tochytskyi, head of the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications.

The work of the Ukrainian initiative group began in August 2022. In the second half of 2022, the Kobzar/Kobzar-Lirnyk Tradition was added to the national list of intangible cultural heritage elements of Ukraine.

In 2023, at the initiative of the Kobzar guilds in Kyiv, Lviv, and Kharkiv, along with the association Watch Ukrainian!, the NGO Center for Development 'Democracy Through Culture', the charitable foundation MHP – to the Community, and the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, Ukraine submitted the Kobzar-Lirnyk Tradition and the related protection program for inclusion in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage lists.

The ministry emphasized that global recognition of safeguarding the Kobzar-Lirnyk tradition as part of humanity's cultural heritage is a significant victory, "especially meaningful in the present day, when, much like during the era of the Cossacks, bearers of this tradition, members of the Kobzar guilds, stand side by side with Ukrainian soldiers, inspiring resilience and unity among all Ukrainians."