The president of EAFF – Mr. Kaloyan Nikolov was reelected for a member at the ICH forum of the NGO to the Steering Committee of the Eastern European Region (Electoral Group II).

In order to regulate the balance in the geographical distribution of Committee members, all members of the ICH forum of NGO are grouped by regional electoral groups, corresponding to the distribution of the UN.

The Forum of NGOs of ICH held elections of the Steering Committee, in which only one candidate was selected for the region concerned. The Steering Committee consists of 7 members – 6 members responsible for the respective election regions and one, who is responsible for the international organizations, as the electoral process is on an overlapping principle. This year were held elections for 4 Electoral groups – II group (Eastern European region), III group (Latin American and Caribbean region), group V (a) — (African countries) и group V (b) (Arab countries).

The applicants had 10 minutes, in which they had to represent themselves and their NGOs, as well as the contribution they want to make, when they become members of the Steering Committee.

For Electoral group (III), which covers the Latin American and Caribbean territories, was reelected Mr. Jorge Gustavo Caicedo.

Mr. Butholezwe Kgosi Nyathi - to the International Center for Cultural Heritage “Amagugu” – Zimbabwe, was elected as a member, representing the African countries (group V (a)).

Member of the ICH Forum to the region of Arab countries (group V (b)) is again Reme Sakr.

Representative of International Non-Governmental Organizations is Mrs. Naila Ceribasic.

Member of the Steering Committee for the Western European and North American regions (I group) is Mrs. Meg Nömgård, and member of the ICH Forum of the NGO to the Steering Committee of the Asian and Pacific region (group IV) is Mr. Dong Hwan Choi.

The election council was composed of the following members: Mrs. Ananya BHATTACHARYA (India), Mrs. Hanhee HAHM (Intangible Culture Research Center, South Korea) and Mr. Laurier TURGEON (Folklore Studies Association of Canada).

The first meeting of the General Assembly was held by Mrs. Naila Ceribasic. Mr Kaloyan Nikolov and Mr. Dong Hwan Choi were Co-Chairpersons at the second assembly. There they adopted the financial statement, the activity report of the ICH NGO Forum, they also discussed the program for the forthcoming year, adopted by laws and Code of conduct of ICH NGO Forum.