News

Three States have recently signed the World Heritage Convention. This will bring the total of States Parties to the Convention to 170. The three States, with the dates on which they deposited their instrument of ratification or acceptance, are: Liberia 23 March 2002 Barbados 09 April 2002 Marshall Islands 24 April 2002 The Convention will come into force for the three countries three months ...

Important announcement for the visitors of the World Heritage Centre portal The UNESCO World Heritage Centre has established a new simpler web address: https://whc.unesco.org (without www) Web browsers using the old address will be automatically referred to the appropriate page on the new server.

The annual report of the du World Heritage Committee (Helsinki, Finland, 11 - 16 décember 2001) has been issued.

Helsinki, Finland - 14 December 2001. The World Heritage Committee, meeting in Helsinki since December 11, has inscribed 31 new sites on the World Heritage List. The List now numbers 721 sites of "outstanding universal value" in 124 countries. For the first time, sites in Botswana and Israel appear on the List. The 31 inscriptions this year include six natural sites and 25 cultural ...

Helsinki, Finland - In its annual review of the state of conservation of sites on the World Heritage List, the World Heritage Committee today decided to include two additional sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger, while at the same time removing a third site. As a result, the List of World Heritage in Danger now includes 31 properties. BRAZIL Iguacu National Park Committee agreed to ...

Helsinki, Finland - The World Heritage Committee opened its 25th annual session in Helsinki, Finland, on Tuesday, 11 December. The meeting, hosted by the Finnish Government, was opened by the Director-General of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura; the President of Finland, Ms Tarja Halonen, and the Finnish ministers of Culture and Environment. The opening session was attended by 280 participants ...

Paris. The General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention opened Tuesday, 30 October 2001 at 10 a.m. in the presence of the majority of the States Parties to the Convention. After the opening of the session by Mounir Bouchenaki, UNESCO ADG Culture and representative of the Director General, Samuel Fernandéz Illanes, Ambassador of Chile to UNESCO, was elected ...

Paris - The 13th session of the General Assembly of the State Parties of the World Heritage Convention ended on the 31st October with the election of eight new members of the World Heritage Committee. The following States Parties were elected: Argentina India Lebanon Nigeria Oman Russian Federation Saint Lucia United Kingdom 1 November 2001: Fifth Extraordinary session of ...

Paris - The Thirteenth General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention will take place this week at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. The bi-annual two-day meeting, which opens Tuesday, is an opportunity for all of the countries which have signed the Convention to take part in its governance. Provisional AgendaParticipation: In accordance with Rule 2 of the Rules of Procedure ...

The twenty-fifth session of the Bureau of the World Heritage Committee will open on Monday, 25 June for its annual six-day meeting at UNESCO Headquarters. The seven Bureau members, Australia, Canada, Ecuador, Finland, Morocco, Thailand, and Zimbabwe will be joined by observer delegations from many other States Parties to the Convention, as well as representatives from the Advisory Bodies ...

Paris - The World Heritage Committee will hold its 26th annual session from June 24 to 29 in Budapest, Hungary, during which it will inscribe new sites on the World Heritage List and review the List of World Heritage in Danger. The intergovernmental World Heritage Committee consists of 21 members elected by the General Assembly of the 172 States Parties to the World Heritage Convention. The ...

Cairns - UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, meeting since November 27 in Cairns, Australia, has inscribed 61 new cultural and natural sites on the World Heritage. The List now has 690 sites of "exceptional universal value" in 122 countries. Sites in Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Nicaragua and Suriname are on the List for the first time. Ten of the new sites are properties inscribed for natural ...

Cairns - On the third day of its 24th session, the World Heritage Committee added three sites to the List of World Heritage in Danger. The three sites, the Historic Town of Zabid (Yemen), the Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary (Senegal) and the Fort and Shalamar Gardens in Lahore (Pakistan), were the subject of extensive discussion during the previous day's deliberations on the state of ...

Cairns, Australia - The World Heritage Committee today opened its 24th annual session in Cairns, Australia. The meeting, hosted by the Australian Federal government and the government of the State of Queensland, was attended by over 320 people. The meeting was attended by all twenty-one members of the World Heritage Committee: Australia, Belgium, Benin, Canada, China, Colombia, Cuba, ...

The World Heritage Committee will hold its 24th annual session from November 27 to December 2 in Cairns, Australia, during which it will inscribe new cultural and natural sites on the World Heritage List and review the List of World Heritage in Danger. The intergovernmental World Heritage Committee consists of 21 States Parties elected for a term of six years by the General Assembly of the ...

Paris - UNESCO's 58-member Executive Board - whose 157th session opened on October 5 - today nominated, in the third round of voting, Koichiro Matsuura as its candidate for the post of UNESCO Director-General, to replace the present Director General Federico Mayor at the end of his second 6-year mandate. Mr Matsuura's candidacy will be submitted to the approval of UNESCO's General Conference ...

The President of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo, announced on 2 March 2000 that the development of the proposed saltworks at San Ignacio would not proceed. The decision was made following the international UNESCO expert mission to the site in August 1999. The results of the mission were presented to, and adopted by, the World Heritage Committee at its twenty-third session held in Marrakesh ...

The World Heritage Committee at its twenty-third session held in Marrakesh (Morocco) from 29 November to 4 December 1999, adopted the conclusions and recommendations of the mission of international experts sent to the Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino (Mexico). The Committee endorsed the main findings of the mission's report which "concluded that the World Heritage site under present ...

Marrakesh - UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, meeting since November 29 in Marrakesh (Morocco), has inscribed 48 new cultural and natural sites on the World Heritage List. The List now has 630 sites of "exceptional universal value" in 118 countries. Sites in South Africa, Nigeria, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Turkmenistan are on the List for the first time. Notable among the new sites are ...

Marrakesh - UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, meeting in Marrakech (Morocco) since November 29, has today included four new sites on its List of World Heritage in Danger. They are the Iguacu National Park (Brazil), the Rwenzori Mountains (Uganda), the Salonga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and the Groups of Monuments at Hampi (India). The inclusion of the Iguacu National ...

Marrakesh - The 23rd session of the World Heritage Committee in Marrakesh, Morocco, was informed today that the United Nations Foundation (UNF) would contribute $2.9 million to World Heritage sites in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The project, "Biodiversity Conservation in Regions of Armed Conflict: Protecting World Natural Heritage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo", ...

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee in an Extraordinary meeting today welcomed efforts by the Australian government to help resolve the controversy surrounding uranium mining and milling in an enclave within the Kakadu National Park which, some claim, endangers this unique archaeological and ethnological site. The Committee decided not to inscribe the site, which has been on the World Heritage ...

Second letter from the Chairperson of the World Heritage Committee to the Environmental Groups concerning the Whale Sanctuary of El Viscaino

The letter follows the receipt of about 30,000 petitions received and numerous individual letters and e-mails sent to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Letter sent by the Chairman of the World Heritage Committee to the Environmental Groups concerning the Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino (Mexico)

Kyoto,Japan - UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, meeting in Kyoto since November 30, has added 30 new sites and one extension to its World Heritage List of cultural and natural sites, bringing the number of listed sites of "exceptional universal value" to 582 in 114 countries. For the first time, the List includes sites located in Belgium and the Solomon Islands. Among this year's ...