Organization - Cultural Heritage Association of Vietnam (CHAV)

• To assemble, unite, and promote cooperative relationships between organizations and individuals; promote information, theory, and experience exchange in practical activities to protect and promote national cultural heritage values;
• To propagate, enhance awareness, and mobilize organizations and individuals to take care of cultural heritage; promote the cause of socialization in order to mobilize all resources to protect and promote cultural heritage values;
• To guide, refresh, and enhance knowledge on protecting cultural heritage values for the association members and heritage owners;
• To assist in the development of occupational activities of cultural heritage;
• To study and advise the party and the state about mechanisms, policies, and measures for protecting and promoting national cultural heritage values;
• To take part in consulting, counter-arguing, supervising, and assessing subjects, projects, and works for protecting and promoting national cultural heritage values as required by a competent state organs and the demand of organizations and individuals at home and abroad; suggesting or directly implementing subjects, projects, and works for protecting and promoting cultural heritage values as required by a competent state organ;
• To study, apply, and disseminate scientific and technological achievements for protecting and promoting cultural heritage values;
• To establish and expand cooperation with foreign organizations and individuals for protecting and promoting cultural heritage values;
• To protect the legal rights and benefits of the association and its members; take part in the struggle for the protection of legal rights and benefits in terms of Vietnamese cultural heritage at the international level;
• To propagate information and mobilize new members.

The Cultural Heritage Association of Vietnam is a socio-occupational association, assembling Vietnamese organizations and individuals with occupations or passion for cultural heritage and protecting and promoting cultural values. It aims to meet people’s increasing demand for building and developing the culture and national characteristics of Vietnam, contributing to World cultural heritage treasure, enhancing state administration efficiency, and improving people’s responsibilities for protecting and promoting cultural values under the Cultural Heritage Law.

The association operates nationwide under state management and patronage of the Ministry of Culture, Sport, and Tourism. It has relations with domestic and international organizations and individuals.

Its organizations and activities follow the principles of: voluntariness, self-government, self-paying expenditure, democratic centralism, collective leadership, individual responsibility, majority-approved decisions, and observance of Vietnam laws and association regulations.

It operates independently, has a legal entity, its own stamps, and a bank account. The head office is located in Hanoi and provinces and cities have representative offices.

The Cultural Heritage Association of Vietnam has many branches nationwide. Most of them take part in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. Working as the Central association, we directly engage in this activity. To serve the mission of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, one important tasks is scientific criticism.

The association often holds meetings, scientific conferences, workshops, and other events with a view to confirm the value of beautiful spots and vestiges. Entries are submitted to related authorized bodies for their consideration and confirmation, and to eventually implement suitable measures to protect and promote the sites. Some of the scientific conferences that we have organized are: Preserving and Promoting Values of the World Natural Heritage Ha Long Bay; Identifying Cultural Heritage Values of Hoa Lu Ancient Capital and Trang An Eco-tourist Site; Tam Dao-Cultural Heritage and Tourist Potential; Management of Folk Festivals; Approach, Research of Sacrifice in Traditional Vietnamese Festivals; Real Situations and Solutions to Improve Efficiency at Private Museums in Vietnam. When hosting these conferences, the association gathered many concerned scientists in such fields as archaeology, environment, biology, and geography, and of course representatives from cultural management bodies.

Since being established, the Cultural Heritage Association of Vietnam has cooperated with various organizations and stage bodies to celebrate cultural events. Every year, the Association cooperates with the Ministry of Culture, Sport, and Tourism and the Vietnam Exhibition Center for Culture and Art to hold Cultural Heritage Day (November 23). These activities have great impacts on cultural cadres as well as on communities. The association collaborated with the Vietnam Cultural Heritage Joint stock company to carry out the program Moon for Children at the Mid-Autumn Festival for excellent pupils in difficulty in the city of Da Nang. On the occasion of the intangible cultural heritage Quan Ho folk song inscribed in the Representative List and Ca Tru singing in the urgent safeguarding list by UNESCO, the Cultural Heritage Association of Vietnam and Vietnam National Village for Ethnic Culture and Tourism organized a meeting of related communities. This event has raised awareness greatly and increased the pride of Vietnamese people in general and related communities in particular.