The Law on Cultural Heritage needs to include additional articles and clauses for documentary heritage.

Workshops and conferences were held to solicit feedback on the draft Law on Cultural Heritage (amended).

The Law on Cultural Heritage, enacted in 2001 and amended in 2009, is a concrete implementation of the policy on cultural heritage preservation in accordance with the 1992 Constitution and the spirit of the Resolution of the Fifth Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (8th term).

According to Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Dao Cuong, since the Law came into effect, many policies and guidelines of the Party and State have continued to be issued to strengthen the direction of cultural activities, including cultural heritage. Therefore, fulfilling the task assigned by the Prime Minister, since 2023, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has actively and proactively coordinated with ministries, sectors, socio-political organizations and localities to develop the draft Law on Cultural Heritage (amended).

Doctoral degree steles at the Temple of Literature - National University, Hanoi

Given the urgent need for timely and appropriate adjustments and additions to the Law on Cultural Heritage in light of the new situation, the Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage, Le Thi Thu Hien, requested delegates to focus their comments on the draft Law on Cultural Heritage (amended) on six groups of issues.

The focus includes: Conceptual systems and procedures for identifying, registering, and ranking cultural heritage; ownership rights and related rights to cultural heritage; rights, responsibilities, and obligations of stakeholders in managing, protecting, and promoting the value of cultural heritage; and mechanisms for mobilizing and attracting comprehensive social resources to actively participate in protecting and promoting the value of cultural heritage...

The woodblocks of the Nguyen Dynasty are a documentary heritage of Vietnam.

At the conference, many presentations clarified the necessary amendments and additions to the Law on Cultural Heritage, such as: including documentary heritage in the amended Law on Cultural Heritage; supplementing regulations on the preservation of artifacts, antiques, and national treasures; regulations on the purchase and repatriation of artifacts and antiques of Vietnamese origin from abroad; and policies and regulations for artisans in protecting intangible cultural heritage…

In the section on museum activities and documentary heritage, many delegates argued that it is necessary to improve the legal framework and local policies for managing, protecting, and promoting cultural heritage values in general and documentary heritage in particular.

To date, Vietnam has had 7 documentary heritage sites inscribed by UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme, including 3 World Documentary Heritage sites and 4 Asia- Pacific Regional Documentary Heritage sites. Despite being a member state of the Programme for 15 years, documentary heritage still lacks a legal framework for protection and promotion within the country. The proposal to include documentary heritage in the revised Law on Cultural Heritage aims to address the shortcomings arising from the current lack of regulations on this type of heritage within Vietnam's legal system.

The outcomes of this conference and workshop are expected to further strengthen the theoretical, scientific, and practical basis for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to gradually refine the regulations in each article and clause of the Draft Law on Cultural Heritage (amended) to be submitted to the National Assembly in the near future.

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