Call for universities willing to apply for membership in the General Assembly

THE REGIONAL CENTRE FOR THE SAFEGUARDING OF INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE UNDER THE AUSPICES OF UNESCO ANNOUNCES A PROCEDURE FOR SELECTION OF UNIVERSITIES WILLING TO APPLY FOR MEMBERSHIP IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CENTRE 

The procedure is conducted in accordance with the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria and UNESCO, the United National Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO), ratified by law and promulgated in the State Gazette, issue 32 from 13.04.2018, the acting Statutes of the Centre, the Rules of Procedure for Selection of Universities  that are eligible for membership in the General Assembly of the Centre, adopted by the General Assembly on 17.05.2018 and a decision of the Executive Board from 13.06.2018.

І. Legal ground

Pursuant to Art. 7 of the Agreement and Art 18, par. 1, sub-par. 7 from the acting Statutes of the Centre up to two representatives of universities may be co-opted as members with voting rights of the General Assembly of the Centre after a decision of the General Assembly.

ІI. General Eligibility Criteria

Universities applying for membership in the General Assembly of the Centre must possess expertise in areas with direct relevance to the activity of the Centre and must share its mission and ideas. They shall:

1. share the core values of UNESCO, among which are teamwork, tolerance and solidarity, work in the interest of humanity and respect for cultural identities;
2. have proven competence, expertise and experience in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (as defined in Article 2.3 of the 2003 Convention) belonging to one or more specific domains;
3. be engaged in scientific research and teaching of disciplines in intangible cultural heritage;
4. cooperate in a spirit of mutual respect with communities, groups, and, where appropriate, individuals that create, practise and transmit intangible cultural heritage;
5. be able, through their activities, to contribute to the fulfilment of the mission and the objectives of the Centre.

ІІІ. Ineligibility

Ineligible for membership in the General Assembly of the Centre are universities which:

1. perform activities that are contrary to the mission and the objectives of UNESCO or the Centre;
2. participate in activities constituting violation of human rights, allowing forced labour or the use of child labour;
3. contravene sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council or otherwise violate valid obligations or responsibilities as required by the United Nations Organization.

ІV. Requirements to the status and membership of universities

Universities which nominate their representatives for membership of the General Assembly of the Centre must obligatorily satisfy the following cumulative requirements:

1. to been established with a statutory act in accordance with their national legislation;
2. to have a decision of their collective governing body for membership in the Centre;
3. to have a recognized legal status (an institutional or programmatic accreditation) by an internationally or nationally certified accrediting agency in compliance with the legal requirements of the countries of their registration;
4. to provide training courses or do scientific research in areas such as intangible cultural heritage in the two educational and qualification degrees: “Bachelor” and “Master” and in the educational and scientific degree of “PhD”;
5. to demonstrate proven experience in working with intangible cultural heritage communities.

In satisfying the requirements to the status and membership the universities present official documents of establishment and legal standing supported by any other relevant evidence.

V. Conducting the procedure

The check for eligibility of the universities candidates for membership in the General Assembly is done by members of the Secretariat of the Centre designated by the Executive Director who review the submitted proposals and nominations and the presented documents, and draw up a list of the eligible universities, i.e. those that satisfy the criteria and requirements for membership in the General Assembly of the Centre.

The list of eligible universities is submitted by the Executive Director to the Executive Board for review. The Executive Board adopts a decision approving the final list of applicant universities to be submitted to the General Assembly for a discussion and a vote.

The admitted universities are informed in written in a due course about the day, hour and the place of the session of the General Assembly where their nomination is supposed to be voted.

The foreign universities – candidates for membership in the General Assembly of the Centre present their documents in English.

Bulgarian universities present their documents in Bulgarian and English.

Any data presented by the candidates will be treated in strict confidentiality only for the purposes of selection procedure.

VІ. Deadline and way of submittal of documents

Documents shall be submitted no later than 13.00 h. on 14.09.2018 to the following address: 7 Luchezar Stanchev Str., 1797 Sofia, Bulgaria /post stamp is considered valid/and by e-mail to: office@unesco–centerbg.org /date of receipt is considered valid/.

For contact: tel.: 02/444 21 03; 02/444 37 40. Contact person: Ms Diana Tokadzhieva