At the 11th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which took place in the beginning of December 2016 in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, the Škofja Loka Passion Play was entered as the first Slovenian unit on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. With this, it was placed alongside other elements of the intangible cultural heritage of the world, which make up the treasury of knowledge and skills of human creativity.

The meeting was attended by a 3-member delegation from the Municipality of Škofja Loka led by Magdalena Tovornik. Representatives of the municipality of Škofja Loka in the role of holders of intangible cultural heritage and the Ministry of Culture and the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum participated in the preparation of the nomination in the role of coordinator of the protection of intangible cultural heritage.

In 2012, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia declared the Škofja Loka Passion Play a living masterpiece of national importance.

This kind of declaration is the highest status of an element of intangible cultural heritage in Slovenia. It is announced with the aim of ensuring its public accessibility and its transmission from generation to generation and to preserve its main features such as: performance according to the original dramatic text, performance during Lent and Easter, performance in the squares and streets of the medieval core of Škofje Loka.

In 2008, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia established the Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage and entered the Škofja Loka Passion Play into it as the first unit.
The municipality of Škofja Loka is registered in the Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage as the bearer of the intangible cultural heritage of the Škofja Loka Passion Play. Her role is to financially and formally take care of the implementation of the Škofja Loka Passion Play and its promotion. It also takes care of the coordination between the many societies and other civil associations that participate in it, for the inclusion of the Škofja Loka Passion Play in the European space.

Since 2018, the Capuchin Monastery of Škofja Loka has also been entered in the Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage. According to their spiritual tradition, the Capuchin brothers are the guardians of the spiritual content of the Škofja Loka Passion Play.