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World Heritage Committee

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Logo of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee

The World Heritage Committee is a committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization that selects the sites to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance upon requests from States Parties.[1] It comprises representatives from 21 state parties[2][1] that are elected by the General Assembly of States Parties for a four-year term.[3] These parties vote on decisions and proposals related to the World Heritage Convention and World Heritage List.

According to the World Heritage Convention, a committee member's term of office is six years. However many States Parties choose to voluntarily limit their term to four years, in order to give other States Parties an opportunity to serve.[3] All members elected at the 15th General Assembly (2005) voluntarily chose to reduce their term of office from six to four years.[3]

Deliberations of the World Heritage Committee are aided by three advisory bodies, the IUCN, ICOMOS and ICCROM.[4][5]

Sessions

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See also: List of World Heritage Sites by year of inscription

The World Heritage Committee meets once a year for an ordinary session to discuss the management of existing World Heritage Sites, and accept nominations by countries.[3] Extraordinary meetings can be convened at the request of two-thirds of the state members.[6] Meetings are held within the territory of state members of the World Heritage Committee at their invitation. Rotation between regions and cultures is a consideration for selection and the location for the next session is chosen by the committee at the end of each session.[6]

Session[7] Year Date Host city
1 1977 27 June–1 July France Paris
2 1978 5 September–8 September United States Washington, D.C.
3 1979 22 October–26 October Egypt Cairo & Luxor
4 1980 1 September–5 September France Paris
5 1981 26 October–30 October Australia Sydney
6 1982 13 December–17 December France Paris
7 1983 5 December–9 December Italy Florence
8 1984 29 October–2 November Argentina Buenos Aires
9 1985 2 December–6 December France Paris
10 1986 24 November–28 November France Paris
11 1987 7 December–11 December France Paris
12 1988 5 December–9 December Brazil Brasília
13 1989 11 December–15 December France Paris
14 1990 7 December–12 December Canada Banff
15 1991 9 December–13 December Tunisia Carthage
16 1992 7 December–14 December United States Santa Fe
17 1993 6 December–11 December Colombia Cartagena
18 1994 12 December–17 December Thailand Phuket
19 1995 4 December–9 December Germany Berlin
20 1996 2 December–7 December Mexico Mérida
21 1997 1 December–6 December Italy Naples
22 1998 30 November–5 December Japan Kyoto
23 1999 29 November–4 December Morocco Marrakech
24 2000 27 November–2 December Australia Cairns
25 2001 11 December–16 December Finland Helsinki
26 2002 24 June–29 June Hungary Budapest
27 2003 30 June–5 July France Paris
28 2004 28 June–7 July China Suzhou
29 2005 10 July–17 July South Africa Durban
30 2006 8 July–16 July Lithuania Vilnius
31 2007 23 June–1 July New Zealand Christchurch
32 2008 2 July–10 July Canada Quebec City
33 2009 22 June–30 June Spain Seville
34 2010 25 July–3 August Brazil Brasília
35 2011 19 June–29 June France Paris
36 2012 25 June–5 July Russia Saint Petersburg
37 2013 17 June–27 June Cambodia Phnom Penh
38 2014 15 June–25 June Qatar Doha
39 2015 28 June–8 July Germany Bonn
40 2016 10 July–20 July Turkey Istanbul
41 2017 2 July–12 July Poland Kraków
42 2018 24 June–4 July Bahrain Manama
43 2019 30 June–10 July Azerbaijan Baku
44 2020–21 16 July–31 July 2021
Originally scheduled for 2020. Postponed to an extended 2021 session due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[8] 		China Fuzhou
45 2022–23 10 September–25 September 2023
Originally scheduled for 19 June–30 June 2022 in Kazan, Russia. Postponed to an extended 2023 session due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[9][10] 		Saudi Arabia Riyadh
46 2024 21 July–31 July India New Delhi
47 2025 June–July Bulgaria Sofia

Bureau

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At the end of each ordinary session, the committee elects a chairperson, five vice-chairpersons and a Rapporteur from those members whose term will continue through the next session.[6] These are known as the Bureau, and their representatives are responsible for coordinating the work of the World Heritage Committee, including fixing dates, hours and the order of business meetings.[1]

Voting

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Each state member of the World Heritage Committee has one vote. Decisions require a simple majority with abstentions counted as not voting. Votes are delivered by a show of hands unless a secret ballot is requested by either the chairperson or two or more states members.[6]

Members

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Current members of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee:

Member state[11] Mandate
 Argentina 2021–2025
 Belgium 2021–2025
 Bulgaria 2021–2025
 Greece 2021–2025
 India 2021–2025
 Italy 2021–2025
 Jamaica 2023–2027
 Japan 2021–2025
 Kazakhstan 2023–2027
 Kenya 2023–2027
 Lebanon 2023–2027
 Mexico 2021–2025
 Qatar 2021–2025
 Rwanda 2021–2025
 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 2021–2025
 Senegal 2023–2027
 South Korea 2023–2027
 Turkey 2023–2027
 Ukraine 2023–2027
 Vietnam 2023–2027
 Zambia 2021–2025
Total 21

Criticism

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Increasing politicization of World Heritage Committee decisions to the detriment of conservation aims has been alleged, particularly with regard to new nominations for the World Heritage List, but also with the consideration of sites for the List of World Heritage in Danger.[12][13] In 2010, states parties including Hungary, Switzerland and Zimbabwe submitted an official protest against such politicization.[5]

An external audit requested by the World Heritage Committee for its Global Strategy of the World Heritage List concluded in 2011 that political considerations were indeed influencing decisions.[5] It observed that the composition of committee representatives had shifted from experts to diplomats in spite of World Heritage Convention Article 9 and found that opinions from advisory bodies often diverged from World Heritage Committee decisions.[5]

In 2016, Israel recalled its UNESCO ambassador after the World Heritage Committee adopted a resolution in a secret ballot that referred to one of Jerusalem's holiest sites, the Temple Mount, only as a "Muslim holy site of worship", not mentioning that Jews and Christians venerate the site.[14][15]

The committee has also been criticized with alleged racism, colorism, and geographic bias for favoring the inscription of sites in Western and industrialized countries over sites belonging to so-called "third-world" countries. A large proportion of the world heritage sites are located in Europe, Eastern Asia, and North America, where populations notably have lighter skin.[16][17][18][19]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c UNESCO. "The World Heritage Committee". UNESCO. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  2. ^ According to the UNESCO World Heritage website, States Parties are countries that signed and ratified The World Heritage Convention. As of March 2013, there were a total of 170 State Parties.
  3. ^ a b c d "The World Heritage Committee". UNESCO World Heritage Site. Retrieved 14 October 2006.
  4. ^ UNESCO World Heritage Centre. "Advisory Bodies". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d Office of the External Auditor for the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization (2011) Independent Evaluation by the UNESCO External Auditor, Volume 1: Implementation of the Global Strategy for the Credible, Balanced and Representative World Heritage List. UNESCO Headquarters, Paris.
  6. ^ a b c d UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the World Natural and Cultural Heritage (2015) Rules of Procedure. World Heritage Centre, Paris. Download available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/committee/ (27 June 2019)
  7. ^ "Sessions". UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  8. ^ UNESCO (16 July 2021). "Extended 44th World Heritage Committee session opens in Fuzhou, China". UNESCO. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  9. ^ "UNESCO indefinitely postpones planned world heritage meeting in Russia". The Art Newspaper. 22 April 2022. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  10. ^ "Saudi Arabia to host UNESCO's World Heritage Committee meetings in September". Saudi Gazette. 24 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  11. ^ "46th session of the World Heritage Committee". World Heritage Site. 2024. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  12. ^ Meskell, Lynn (Winter 2014). "States of Conservation: Protection, Politics, and Pacting within UNESCO's World Heritage Committee". Anthropological Quarterly. 87: 217–243. doi:10.1353/anq.2014.0009. S2CID 143628800.
  13. ^ "UNESCO's world heritage sites: A danger list in danger". The Economist. 26 August 2010. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  14. ^ Greshko, Michael (12 October 2017). "U.S. to Withdraw From UNESCO. Here's What That Means". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 21 March 2020. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  15. ^ Tress, Luke (26 October 2016). "UNESCO adopts another resolution ignoring Jewish link to Temple Mount". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  16. ^ Eliot, et al (2012). World heritage: Constructing a universal cultural order. Poetics Journal.
  17. ^ Djurberg, et al (2018). Reforming UNESCO's World Heritage. The Globalist.
  18. ^ Keough (2011). Heritage in Peril: A Critique of UNESCO's World Heritage Program. Global Studies Law Review.
  19. ^ Steiner, et al (2011). Imbalance of World Heritage List: "Did the UNESCO Strategy Work?". University of Zurich.
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