Here at Fields of Green for ALL we are excited for developments towards declaring Cannabis an “Intangible Cultural Heritage” (ICH) at UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation).

Recently, we read that Switzerland is applying for recognition of their yodelling (Swiss singing) tradition and in 2018 Jamaica succeeded in having their Reggae Music declared as an ICH. This will be a long process, given the contentious nature of Cannabis everywhere in the world but this project is a welcome addition to our international efforts and offers some respite from the tumultuous world of international drug policy reform.

As with everything we do, the desired outcomes of a project such as this are something which needs to be understood from the beginning:

  1. Acknowledge the policy crisis affecting the full enjoyment of the cultural rights of people part of cannabis-related communities, and putting at risk their cultural heritage.
  2. Address the interactions between Article 49 of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, and other international legal provisions, particularly in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the two human rights covenants, and the International Convention on the  Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination. 
  3. Consider supporting existing or future community-led initiatives concerned with the identification, documentation, and safeguarding of cultural elements associated with cannabis and cannabis-related communities.

Last month our colleagues at the Cannabis Embassy submitted a technical paper:
Cannabis a Plant Without Borders. Cultural Diagnosis. One Hundred Years after its Prohibition – to UNESCO on the occasion of their World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development (MONDIACULT 2025) with this preamble:

“In 1961, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs’s Article 49 codified the eradication of traditional, non-medical uses of cannabis worldwide — disregarding their documented historical presence and silencing communities whose cultural expressions were never institutionally recognised nor safeguarded.

Since 2003, the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage has shifted the normative framework. And socio-cultural groups associated with cannabis have managed to maintain their living cultural traditions, despite stigma and repression. 

This Technical Paper calls for a reconsideration of international obligations and commitments related to cannabis and cultural rights, including the right to maintain, transmit, and develop one’s cultural heritage. It invites relevant institutions to foster enabling environments for the community-based safeguarding of cannabis-related living heritage, and to acknowledge the impact of stigma, criminalisation, and exclusion on the cultural vitality and intergenerational transmission of knowledge. 

Recognising cannabis cultures as part of the diversity of cultural expressions is essential to the promotion of inclusive, rights-based, and peace-oriented cultural policies in the 21st century.”

PLEASE NOTE: The Cannabis Embassy is responsible for the choice and presentation of the ideas and opinions expressed in this project, which do not necessarily reflect the views of UNESCO and do not commit the organisation in any way.

Download the Technical Paper  >> HERE <<

More information: https://cannabisembassy.org/mexta/pm-geneva/unesco/