TY - GEN A1 - Rudolff, Britta A1 - Raymond, Susanne T1 - A Community Convention? An analysis of Free, Prior and Informed Consent given under the 2003 Convention T2 - International Journal of Intangible Heritage N2 - When the 2003 Convention was drafted a decade ago, one of its aims was to overcome the perceived exclusions and shortcomings of the earlier UNESCO Conventions, in particular the World Heritage Convention. The intention was to adopt a legally binding instrument, which allowed for stronger representation of heritage expressions of the South, which placed communities and grass-roots initiatives at the centre of its activities, and which would strengthen the recognition of and support for heritage practitioners. On the occasion of the Convention’s tenth anniversary, this paper offers a review of the Convention’s success rate in community involvement by focusing on two aspects: the degree to which communities were the driving forces or strongly involved partners in the preparation of candidature files for the Convention’s Intangible Heritage Lists and the way in which their free, prior and informed consent was documented. Based on these findings the paper reflects on potential further improvements towards the Convention’s aims within the forthcoming decade and also briefly discusses if the other UNESCO cultural heritage conventions, in particular the World Heritage Convention, could benefit from the introduction of the concept of free, prior and informed consent to document community support and involvement. KW - Intangible Heritage KW - Free prior informed consent Y1 - 2013 SN - 1975-3586 IS - 8 SP - 154 EP - 164 ER -