The Bill (Reg. No. 0009) envisages Ukraine´s joining the International Convention on Protection of Non-Material Cultural Heritage, adopted in October 2003 in Paris.
The Committee members stated that the Convention secures on the international level the right and obligation of member States to respect, preserve, investigate, protect and popularize non-material cultural heritage.
Pursuant to the Convention, "non-material cultural heritage" represents those customs, demonstration and expression forms, knowledge and skills, and relevant instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural dimensions which are recognized by communities, groups and, in some cases, by particular persons as the part of their cultural heritage". The People´s Deputies emphasized that this non-material cultural heritage, descended from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by the communities and the groups under influence of their surrounding, their relations with the Nature and their history, and develops selfhood and inheritance in them, promoting, in such a way, cultural diversity and human creativity.
The People´s Deputies stated that adoption of the Bill by The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will testify Ukraine´s willingness to protect non-material cultural heritage as the source of cultural diversity, create necessary legal grounds for preservation of traditional culture, folklore and customs in Ukraine that are in danger of destruction and disappearance due to pressure caused by cultural aspects of globalization.