Decision 38 COM 7B.23

Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's Palace and Maiden Tower (Azerbaijan) (C 958)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC-14/38.COM/7B.Add,
2. Recalling Decision 36 COM 7B.71, adopted at its 36th session (Saint-Petersburg, 2012),
3. Takes note of the actions undertaken by the State Party to improve the conservation and management of the property and urges it to finalize the approval process for recently developed management and planning tools to ensure their effective implementation;
4. Encourages the State Party to sustain its conservation and protection efforts with particular attention to the following:
   1. Formulate and adopt guidance for a consistent conservation and maintenance approach to the building stock within the property to ensure that fabric decay is adequately addressed and urban planning coherence is maintained,
   2. Actively encourage the rehabilitation of decayed buildings through incentives to strengthen conservation of historic buildings and support a living city approach,
   3. In accordance with the legislative framework, examine options for the removal of illegal constructions within the property and for alternatives to mitigate the impacts, in relation to character and volume, of existing new constructions and/or elevation or transformation of historical buildings,
   4. Strictly enforce regulatory measures in the buffer zone, giving consideration to defining a larger protection zone for the wider setting of the property to avoid further erosion of its visual qualities and to enhance protection,
   5. Continue the work of the Technical Review Committee to review projects for intervention and enforce planning controls and clear procedures for approval of proposals,
   6. Consider the integration of the Historic Urban Landscape approach for the definition/updating of planning tools for the property, its buffer zone and wider setting;
5. Also urges the State Party to strengthen the effective implementation of the moratorium on further construction, elevation and inappropriate transformation of historical buildings within the property;
6. Requests the State Party to continue, in conformity with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines , to inform the World Heritage Centre about planned projects within the buffer zone and wider setting of the property and to submit technical details, including Heritage Impact Assessments, for projects being considered for approval;
7. Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre by 1 December 2015 a report, including a 1-page executive summary, on the state of conservation of the property and on the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 40th session in 2016.