Decision 43 COM 7B.54

Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region (Sudan) (C 1073)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/19/43.COM/7B.Add,
2. Recalling Decision 42 COM 7B.59, adopted at its 42nd session (Manama, 2018),
3. Commends the State Party regarding a number of good examples of conservation or protection works being undertaken at select sites;
4. Expresses its serious concern at the overall state of conservation of the property, which, according to the 2019 joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring mission, is seriously threatened by alarming levels of fabric degradation as a result of environmental factors, absence of adequate controls, lack of appropriate maintenance, inadequate museum and storage facilities, lack of management planning, no overall strategy for managing foreign excavation teams, urban encroachment and development of projects, all of which are impacting negatively and in places irreversibly on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), and requests the State Party to implement the recommendations to the 2019 mission;
5. Notes with great concern that an area in front of the Gebel Barkal site has been sold for development despite the intention for it to be part of the buffer zone, and urges the State Party to halt these development proposals, and as a matter of urgency and to submit to the World Heritage Centre a Minor Boundary Modification, which defines the buffer zones at the property;
6. Also notes that on-ground tourism management problems are leading to vehicles entering the property and damaging monuments;
7. Considers that the overall situation regarding the protection and management of the property is beyond the current capacity of the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM) to manage effectively despite the efforts of the State Party; and that support is urgently needed to strengthen this capacity in order to allow the basic structures to be put in place relating to boundaries, and management, including tourism management;
8. Also considers that immediate measures have to be taken to suspend potentially adverse proposals, until these can be appropriately considered, and to undertake immediate measures to enhance protection and management;
9. Calls upon the international community to support the State Party’s urgent protection and management work through financial, technical or expert assistance;
10. Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2020, a report on the state of conservation of the property and on the steps taken to implement the recommendations above mentioned, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 44th session in 2020, with a view to considering, in the case of confirmation of the ascertained danger to the OUV, the possible inscription of the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger.