Second Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Center & UNESCO workshop set to start

Gathering to highlight the importance of preserving the cultural heritage of the United Arab Emirates and its people

Dubai, January 21, 2016 – The Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Center (HHC) and the United Nations Organisation for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) will jointly hold their second workshop here in the UAE from Sunday, January 24th until Sunday, January 31st.

The week-long gathering will be split into two distinct sections, with a theoretical element from Sunday to Wednesday, January 27th followed by a practical part until the penultimate day (Saturday, January 30th).

Twenty five participants will be divided into five even teams and, under the leadership of His Excellency Abdullah bin Dalmouk, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Center, they will be sent to different regions of the country – Dubai, Fujairah, Hatta and the eastern region of the Emirate of Sharjah.

The final day of the workshop has been set aside to assess the work undertaken by the five teams, whose focus will be on safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage of the United Arab Emirates as per the terms of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention.

Commenting on the workshop, His Excellency Abdullah bin Dalmouk said: “Following on from our initial gathering in October last year, this second joint workshop with UNESCO further underlines our collective commitment to reviving and promoting the cultural heritage of the UAE. It will help bolster the Center’s work in maintaining the UAE’s intangible cultural heritage in accordance with the highest international standards and within a global framework.”

The workshop will be led by Dr. Annie Thome-Tabet, a well-known expert in intangible cultural heritage who has published many numerous research papers on the subject in leading international publications and Dr. Hani F Hayajneh, an accredited UNESCO facilitator for the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and author of the book: ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage: Prospects and Challenges.’

Dr. Hayajneh is a UNESCO cultural heritage expert and a professor of Cultural and Historical Studies at Yarmouk University – Jordan, while Dr. Thome-Thabet is a professor of Sociology and Anthropology at St Joseph University in Beirut.