Decision 40 COM 7B.7

Historic Centre of Puebla (Mexico) (C 416)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/16/40.COM/7B.Add,
2. Recalling Decision 38 COM 7B.45, adopted at its 38th session (Doha, 2014);
3. Regrets that the State Party submitted most of the relevant information of its state of conservation report in Spanish, and not in one of the working languages of the World Heritage Convention (English and French);
4. Congratulates the State Party for the establishment of the Historic Centre and Cultural Heritage Administration and for the process developed within this framework to ensure the interaction and coordination among different levels of government and management and planning tools;
5. Noting that one of the tasks of the Historic Centre and Cultural Heritage Administration is to develop a management plan for the World Heritage property, recommends that this be considered as a priority action and requests the State Party to submit an electronic and three printed copies of the finalized management plan for review by the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies;
6. Strongly regrets that the cable car construction has been completed and that the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies were not given the opportunity to review the project prior to commencing the works, as should have been the case, in conformity with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines;
7. Notes however the information provided by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) that the cable car does not pose a threat to the property’s Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), including its integrity and authenticity and, in spite of its completion, also requests the State Party to submit, as soon as possible and in any case no later than 1 September 2016, the complete assessment carried out by INAH, for review by the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies;
8. Further requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2017, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 42nd session in 2018.