Decision 44 COM 5A

Report of the World Heritage Centre on its activities and the implementation of the World Heritage Committee’s decisions

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/21/44.COM/5A, WHC/21/44.COM/INF.5A.1 and WHC/21/44.COM/INF.5A.2,
2. Recalling Decisions 42 COM 5A and 43 COM 5A adopted at its 42nd (Manama, 2018) and 43rd (Baku, 2019) sessions respectively,
3. Takes note with appreciation of the activities undertaken by the World Heritage Centre over the past year in pursuit of the five Strategic Objectives set by the World Heritage Committee and of the Expected Result 1 of Major Programme IV to ensure that “Tangible heritage [is] identified, protected, monitored and sustainably managed by Member States, in particular through the effective implementation of the 1972 Convention”;
4. Also takes note of the results of the on-line consultation with the Governing Bodies of the World Heritage Convention for the preparation of the 41 C/4 and 41 C/5 documents;
5. Further takes note with concern of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on World Heritage and commends the Secretariat for the responses to this extreme situation;
6. Further takes note of the progress reports on the Thematic Programmes / Initiatives, thanks States Parties and other stakeholders for their support, and invites them to continue to provide human and financial resources to support the implementation of these
   Programmes / Initiatives;
7. Acknowledges the results attained by the Earthen Architecture Programme and the Thematic Initiative on Heritage of Astronomy, Science and Technology, which have both achieved their key objectives, and decides to phase them out, requesting the World Heritage Centre to continue to cooperate with IAU and CRAterre in identifying, conserving and managing of earthen architecture, astronomy, science or technology heritage of Outstanding Universal Value;
8. Welcomes the continued efforts to enhance synergies among UNESCO’s Culture Conventions and the inter-sectoral work with the biodiversity-related conventions and programmes;
9. Requests the World Heritage Centre to further strengthen these synergies and exchanges, including on critical issues and challenges such as climate change impacts, and calls on all States Parties to the Convention to actively engage in the preparation of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) in order to set an ambitious global agenda to halt biodiversity loss and to reflect the contribution of the World Heritage Convention to global biodiversity conservation;
10. Thanks the Governments of Australia, Flanders, France, Hungary, Japan, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway and the Republic of Korea for their support to the implementation the activities carried out by the World Heritage Centre for the implementation of the Convention, and invites other States Parties to provide such support;
11. Also recalling Decisions 43 COM 8, adopted at its 43rd session (Baku, 2019), takes note of the preliminary preparations for the 50th anniversary of World Heritage Convention;
12. Requests the World Heritage Centre to present a report on its activities at its 45th session as well as an updated result-based report on Thematic Programmes, under Item 5A: Report of the World Heritage Centre on its activities, for examination at its 46th session.