ESSHC Valencia 2016

Taking into consideration the historical development of international and Polish legal regulations concerning minority rights and their cultural, social and religious guarantees, the article deals with some core questions regarding self-identification of communities and the role of state in its preservation in the discourse of the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage and the UNESCO Convention of 2003. Historical developments of national legal regime and its interconnection with international documents will be analysed in order to reveal the representation or under-representation of minorities’ intangible cultural heritage in the National Representative Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage or National Inventories for Intangible Cultural Heritage, and – in a broader perspective – in official national cultural policy strategies of selected European countries.