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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]

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 Paris
2 1978 5–8 September Washington, D.C.
3 1979 22–26 October Cairo & Luxor
4 1980 1–5 September Paris
5 1981 26–30 October Sydney
6 1982 13–17 December Paris
7 1983 5–9 December Florence
8 1984 29 October – 2 November Buenos Aires
9 1985 2–6 December Paris
10 1986 24–28 November Paris
11 1987 7–11 December Paris
12 1988 5–9 December Brasília
13 1989 11–15 December Paris
14 1990 7–12 December Banff
15 1991 9–13 December Carthage
16 1992 7–14 December Santa Fe
17 1993 6–11 December Cartagena
18 1994 12–17 December Phuket
19 1995 4–9 December Berlin
20 1996 2–7 December Mérida
21 1997 1–6 December Naples
22 1998 30 November – 5 December Kyoto
23 1999 29 November – 4 December Marrakesh
24 2000 27 November – 2 December Cairns
25 2001 11–16 December Helsinki
26 2002 24–29 June Budapest
27 2003 30 June – 5 July Paris
28 2004 28 June – 7 July Suzhou
29 2005 10–17 July Durban
30 2006 8–16 July Vilnius
31 2007 23 June – 1 July Christchurch
32 2008 2–10 July Quebec City
33 2009 22–30 June Seville
34 2010 25 July – 3 August Brasília
35 2011 19–29 June Paris
36 2012 25 June – 5 July Saint Petersburg
37 2013 17–27 June Phnom Penh
38 2014 15–15 June Doha
39 2015 28 June – 8 July Bonn
40 2016 10–20 July Istanbul
41 2017 2–12 July Kraków
42 2018 24 June – 4 July Manama
43 2019 30 June – 10 July Baku
44 2020–21 16–31 July 2021[a] Fuzhou
45 2022–23 10–25 September 2023[b] Riyadh
46 2024 21–31 July New Delhi
47 2025 6–16 July Paris
  1. ^ Originally scheduled for 2020. Postponed to an extended 2021 session due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[8]
  2. ^ Originally scheduled for 19–30 June 2022 in Kazan, Russia. Postponed to an extended 2023 session due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[9][10]

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]

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]

Current members of the World Heritage Committee
Member state[11] Duration
Armenia 2025–2029
Azerbaijan 2025–2029
Bangladesh 2025–2029
Czech Republic 2025–2029
Grenada 2025–2029
Jamaica 2023–2027
Kazakhstan 2023–2027
Kenya 2023–2027
Kuwait 2025–2029
Lebanon 2023–2027
Mongolia 2025–2029
Peru 2025–2029
Poland 2025–2029
Senegal 2023–2027
South Korea 2023–2027
 Switzerland 2025–2029
Tanzania 2025–2029
Togo 2025–2029
Turkey 2023–2027
Ukraine 2023–2027
Vietnam 2023–2027
Total 21

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]

  1. ^ a b c UNESCO. "The World Heritage Committee". UNESCO. Archived from the original on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  2. ^ According to the UNESCO World Heritage website, States Parties Archived 26 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine are countries that signed and ratified The World Heritage Convention Archived 27 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine. 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. Archived from the original on 5 July 2020. Retrieved 14 October 2006.
  4. ^ UNESCO World Heritage Centre. "Advisory Bodies". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. 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 Archived 12 May 2021 at the Wayback Machine. 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/ Archived 17 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine (27 June 2019)
  7. ^ "Sessions". UNESCO World Heritage Site. Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  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. Archived from the original on 24 November 2023. 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. Archived from the original on 26 September 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  13. ^ "UNESCO's world heritage sites: A danger list in danger". The Economist. 26 August 2010. Archived from the original on 31 July 2021. 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. Archived from the original on 21 March 2020. 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.