Showing her proverbial sensitivity, she recalled that the adoption of the World Heritage Convention on 16 November 1972 had made it possible for the international community to take an unprecedented step towards the recognition of the thousand-year-old legacy of human knowledge and of the work of nature since the very origin of the world.

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES

It also stated that cultural authenticity is based on recognition of the components of cultural identity, whatever their geographic origin and however they have mingled, and that every people or group of peoples has both the right and the duty to determine independently its own cultural identity, based on its historical antecedents, its individual values and aspirations, and its sovereign will.

UNESCO: Intangible Cultural Heritage