News

Are you a youth organization and want to sensitize young people about the value of World Heritage sites?  Or are you an NGO and wish to organize an action camp to preserve and promote a World Heritage site, with young international volunteers? Here is a way to do so! We are pleased to announce the call for proposals for the World Heritage Volunteers (WHV) 2014. This year the campaign will be ...

A massive earthquake and powerful typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) successively struck central Philippines in October and early November 2013, causing catastrophic destruction and human loss. The UNESCO World Heritage Centre has expressed its deepest sympathy to the Government and people of the Philippines for their tragic losses, and conveyed its commitment to support their recovery ...

On 27 November, Swiss watch manufacturer Jaeger-LeCoultre, a partner of the World Heritage Centre, donated 30,000 Euros for the preservation of Cocos Island National Park. This World Heritage marine site is located 550 km off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and is the only island in the tropical eastern Pacific with a tropical rainforest. The donation will be used to improve the conditions ...

UNWTO is the specialized agency of the United Nations in charge of promoting a responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. A new memorandum of Understanding was signed by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai, in the margins of the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination in New York. The Agreement provides a framework for ...

On 19 November, representatives of the 190 States Parties to the 1972 World Heritage Convention elected 12 new members to the 21-member intergovernmental Committee in charge of managing UNESCO’s World Heritage List and implementing the Convention. The new members of the World Heritage Committee, elected for four years, are: Croatia, Finland, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, ...

Celebrating 40 years of the World Heritage Convention, the proceedings of the Closing Event of the Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the World Heritage Convention, has been published. This electronic publication provides the vivid record of the three-day landmark event, which was organized jointly by the Government of Japan and UNESCO World Heritage Centre, in Kyoto, Japan, 6-8 November ...

This manual provides guidance for States Parties and all those involved in the care of World Heritage cultural properties on how to comply with the requirements of the World Heritage Convention. It also aims to help States Parties to ensure that heritage has a dynamic role in society and harnesses, but also delivers to others, the mutual benefits that such a role can create. Managing ...

The significant number of reports prepared by UNESCO and the Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee represents an exceptional documentation on conservation issues, one of the most comprehensive monitoring systems of any international conventions, through a global network of hundreds of sites. The Information System is a comprehensive database on the state of conservation of World ...

The Atlas by Collins app can be downloaded for free on Tuesday, October 29th. The app comes with one globe pre-installed and includes 10 other globes that can be downloaded.  The free download is available to celebrate the launch of the World Heritage globe. With the World Heritage globe: Discover the locations of all 981 UNESCO World Heritage sites. Learn about the criteria for ...

UNESCO on 14 October delivered a first training course in cultural heritage protection to military, police and civilian staff from Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, France, Romania, Rwanda, Togo and the United Kingdom, who are part of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The session comes in the wake of United Nations Security Council Resolution ...

Managers from 46 marine World Heritage sites will meet in Ajaccio, Corsica, from October 18-20, for the second World Heritage Marine Site Managers’ conference. The World Heritage Convention was founded in 1972 on the premise that certain places on our planet – cultural or natural -- should be recognized as having “outstanding universal value” and should be safeguarded ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, deplored the suicide attack that took place on 28 September, near the Djingareyber Mosque in Timbuktu, Mali, inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. "I wish to express my solidarity with the people of Mali, the families and especially the community of Timbuktu, for the suicide bombing that brings back such terror and violence by injuring ...

On Wednesday, 25 September, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova joined the President of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), Dr. Hans-Martin Hinz, and United States Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, Ms Anne Richard, to launch an Emergency Red List of Syrian Cultural Objects at Risk. The event was held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York ...

A joint publication of UNESCO and the Paris-based NGO Oriental Cultural Heritage Sites Protection Alliance, Lumbini, Birthplace of Buddha is a novel approach at encapsulating this site’s timeless essence.  Eight photographers – three Nepali and five from around the world – used their unique vision to capture the Sacred Garden experience and, in the tradition of ...

The results of the 3rd and 4th HERITY Conferences, held in Rome, Italy in December 2010 and 2012, are now available. The conferences and their conclusions were made possible thanks to contributions from UNESCO-WHC, UN-WTO, ICCROM and HERITY International. For more information on HERITY, the different conferences and their results, please visit: ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today called on all parties involved in the conflict in Syria to safeguard the country’s cultural heritage and take all possible measures to avoid further destruction. The Director-General’s appeal followed a meeting of experts held at the Organization’s Headquarters today to examine  an action plan aimed at preventing ...

The World Heritage Centre has learnt with deep sadness of the recent passing away of Professor Walter Santagata, a long-time collaborator of UNESCO and the creator, among many other scientific programmes, of the Turin Category 2 centre for training and research on the economics of World Heritage (ITRECH, 2011). The establishment of this institution, aimed at exploring the economic dimension ...

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site on Tuesday welcomed its 10 millionth visitor since achieving the rare distinction of being designated a World Heritage site. Visitor N° 10,000,000 was Michelle Miller of Waterloo, Ill. She was accompanied by her mother, Lorraine Novak; daughter Gabrielle Miller; and her daughter’s friend Keira Schmitz. Miller received a personal tour of the site ...

On 10 November 2011 UNESCO’s General Conference adopted the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape, six years after the General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention adopted Resolution 15GA/7 (in October 2005) that called for the elaboration of a new international standard-setting instrument that would be based on the recognition and guidance of investment in and ...

The Val de Loire World Heritage cultural landscape (France) is organizing a one-day workshop on Economy, Heritage and Landscape, to be held 12th  December 2013 in Tours. The workshop will focus mainly on policies and politics, and assessing the economic, environmental and cultural current and future returns on investments in the economic, landscape and heritage spheres. Discussions ...