Procedure and criteria

1. The intangible cultural heritage is registered by practitioners or people involved. They thereto create an account on this website.
2. The practitioners or people involved fill out the online registration form. They also indicate that they endorse the ‘Ethical Principles for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage’.
3. The registration will be visible on the website after approval by the Centre, which checks if the registration meets the criteria.

1. It concerns living culture, that is continued by a succession of practitioners or people involved: from generation to generation and from person to person.
2. The practitioners consider this culture as heritage.
3. It concerns dynamic heritage: the practitioners are aware of the changes in the past and are open to change in the future.
4. The ICH is registered for the Network by a practitioner or someone involved.
5. The ICH is not in conflict with the international human rights conventions and does not interfere with the Dutch legislation.
6. The wellbeing of animals (involved in the ICH) is not damaged.

1. The practitioners or the people involved (in consultation with the practitioners) indicate to the Centre that they wish to nominate their ICH for inscribing ICH in the Inventory Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Netherlands. They do so by communicating their motivation via the "Interest in the Inventory" button on their intangible heritage page.
2. The Center selects communities twice a year, partly based on the motivations, for participating in the course "Setting up a Safeguarding Plan".
3. The practitioners take the course ‘Setting up a Safeguarding Plan’, organized by the Centre, which consists of three dayparts. The UNESCO Convention, the Inventory and safeguarding are explained in this course.
4. The practitioners write their own Safeguarding Plan for which the Center form is used. In addition, they fill in the Nomination Form. During the course "Setting up a Safeguarding Plan" you start filling in the forms, after which the answers are further elaborated at home. The Center consultants provide support in this regard.
5. After the three sessions, the Safeguarding Plan will be finished and is submitted to the independent Review Committee together with the Nomination Form, with signatures and appendices. The Committee reviews the nomination (Nomination Form and Safeguarding Plan) and advises the board of the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage to include the ICH in the Inventory Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Netherlands.
6. The Review Committee may suspend a nomination with a request for additional information. After addition, the nomination will be once more reviewed by the Committee.
7. After the decision by the Board of the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage, the ICH can be inscribed in the Inventory Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Netherlands.
8. Every three years the safeguarding activities are evaluated by the practitioners and the Safeguarding Plan is updated.

In its Activity Plan 2017-2020, the Centre has announced to handle 15 new nominations a year for the Inventory Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Netherlands. In addition to the motivation given, the diversity (in the broadest sense of the word) of the Inventory is also considered.

1. The intangible cultural heritage has been registered in the Intangible Cultural Heritage Network and therewith meets the criteria for the Network.
2. The intangible cultural heritage is nominated by or together with the people involved or its practitioners for entering the Inventory.
3. The practitioners/people involved wish to give a future to the ICH; they want to pass it on to next generations.
4. In the Safeguarding Plan the people involved/practitioners make clear that they have thought about the future of their heritage. They reveal their current actions and their plans to give a future to their intangible cultural heritage. Wherever needed, additional actions are stated in order to solve bottlenecks in the transmission to next generations.
5. The heritage is dynamic, meaning that it may change with time. The practitioners/people involved are open to these dynamics and express this accordingly.

In its Activity Plan 2017-2020, the Centre has announced to handle 15 new nominations a year for the Inventory Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Netherlands. In addition to the motivation given, the diversity (in the broadest sense of the word) of the Inventory is also considered.

1. The Centre identifies good examples of safeguarding if it considers them suitable to serve as an example. It discusses the possibilities around inscription in the Register with the relevant practitioners or people involved. Another possibility is that the practitioners/people involved indicate to the Centre that they have found a safeguarding method which they think is a good example. They do so by communicating their motivation via the "Interest in the Register" button on their intangible heritage page.
2. The Centre checks if the safeguarding action(s) or method meet(s) the criteria.
3. The practitioners attend the informative meeting ‘Making good examples in safeguarding visible’, organised by the Centre. The meeting gives an explanation of how the safeguarding method involved can be made transparent and transferable, so that other ICH communities are able to (partially) apply these.
4. The Centre assesses if the method has been properly described and if it is transferable.
5. The safeguarding method concerned is included in the Register of Inspiring Examples of Safeguarding.

1. The intangible cultural heritage is included in the Inventory Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Netherlands and thus meets the criteria for the Inventory.
2. The practitioners/people involved have found a method of safeguarding their own ICH that can set an example. This may concern the interplay of the total safeguarding, but can also be restricted to some of the elements of the safeguarding.
3. The safeguarding method has the potency to be used by other people involved/practitioners of ICH as well.
4. The practitioners and people declare their willingness to pass their safeguarding method on and to present it to other ICH communities.