Decision 45 COM 7B.33

National History Park – Citadel, Sans Souci, Ramiers (Haiti) (C 180)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/23/45.COM/7B.Add,
2. Recalling Decisions 42 COM 7B.39 and 44 COM 7B.68 adopted at 42nd (Manama, 2018) and extended 44th (Fuzhou/online, 2021) sessions respectively,
3. Also recalling the numerous reports of the Advisory and Reactive Monitoring missions and their recommendations to the State Party on the conservation and management of the property;
4. Notes that it has been difficult for the State Party to advance in the implementation of these recommendations due to the extremely complex internal circumstances and the COVID-19 pandemic and commends the State Party for the continued attention it has given to management and conservation actions as presented in its state of conservation report;
5. Noting that the preparation of essential tools for the good management and conservation of the property, such as the definition of the buffer zone and the finalization of the conservation and management plans, has considerably progressed and is underway, requests the State Party to submit a finalized version of these documents to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies, as soon as they become available;
6. Appreciates the information provided by the State Party that while it considers that improvement of the existing road through the park is an urgent necessity, an alternative solution to the RN003 east of the park (option 2) is still under consideration and notes that all the works related to the RN003 have been suspended for three years;
7. Reiterates its position that the road through the park (the so-called ‘Park Road’) should be exclusively for local use and access to the monuments, that the proposed mitigation measures associated with its proposed improvements cannot be seen to mitigate the adverse impacts which would pose an imminent danger to the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, and that a deviation of the RN003 around the park is an absolute necessity to preserve the OUV of the property;
8. Considering that all above matters are intimately linked and inseparable, also requests the State Party to invite a joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring mission to:
   1. Advise the State Party on:
      1. The necessity and means to improve the section of the road through the park as a Park Road, in ways that mitigate the highly adverse impacts of the current proposals as identified by the Environmental and Heritage Impact Assessments that the State Party already has undertaken,
      2. Ways of progressing as a matter of urgency the deviation of the RN003 to the east of the park (the so-called option 2),
   2. Assess the reasons for delays in the finalization of essential tools for the good management and conservation of the property, such as the definition of the buffer zone and the finalization of the conservation and management plans;
9. Reiterates its request to the State Party to halt the construction of the RN003 within the limits of the property pending the development of other alternatives to be evaluated, in accordance with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines, and further requests the State Party to confirm that the future route of the RN003 will not pass through the property as it would seriously affect its integrity and its OUV, and to inform the Committee as soon as possible if and when the necessary studies for defining the deviation outside the property will be made;
10. Appreciates the emergency actions the State Party is taking in response to the fire, which destroyed the Church of Milot in April 2020 and requests the State Party to keep the Committee informed of any further development and to submit conservation reports and restoration proposals to the World Heritage Centre for analysis by the Advisory Bodies;
11. Finally requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2024, 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 47th session, considering that the urgent conservation needs of this property require a broad mobilization to preserve its OUV, including the possible inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger.