4. The Committee elected Mr Henrik Lilius (Finland) as Chairperson of the World Heritage Committee and Mr Francisco Lopez Morales (Mexico) as Rapporteur. The Vice-Presidents elected were: Egypt, Greece, Hungary, South Africa and Thailand.
5. In his opening address, the representative of the Director-General, Mr Mounir Bouchenaki, Assistant Director-General for Culture, spoke of the incontestable success of the World Heritage Convention. He welcomed the Kingdom of Bhutan, Samoa and Eritrea as new signatories to the Convention. The Convention would have 167 States Parties by the end of 2001. He stated that this achievement of near universality proved that the world attached special importance to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage. 6. Mr Bouchenaki advised the General Assembly that Mr Peter King (Australia) had ...
14. The General Assembly elected by acclamation H.E Ambassador Samuel Fernandéz Illanes (Chile) as Chairperson of the General Assembly.
15. The Chairperson thanked the General Assembly for his election and commented on the tremendous importance of the World Heritage Convention.
16. The Delegate of Algeria congratulated the Chairperson on his election and welcomed the three new States Parties to the Convention. He then asked that the representative of Palestine be accepted as an observer to the 13th General Assembly. The Delegates of Cuba, the Republic of Dominica, Egypt, the Republic of ...
19. The Delegate of France questioned the procedures used to elect the Chairperson of the General Assembly whereby there was no consultation prior to the session. He proposed that this issue and Rule 3 of the Rules of Procedure be discussed under Item 11: Other business. He also suggested that candidates for Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and Rapporteur could be called for in advance and that all States Parties be informed.
20. The Delegate of the United States of America agreed with the proposal made by the Delegate of France and also commented that in future the General Assembly needed ...
24. The Chairperson invited the General Assembly to choose three Vice-Chairpersons and a Rapporteur. Mr Boubaker Ben Fraj, Director General of the National Institute for Heritage of Tunisia and Ms Sandra Kalniete, Ambassador of Latvia to UNESCO were appointed as Vice-Chairpersons by acclamation. A third Vice-Chairperson was not appointed. Mrs Deanna Ongpin-Recto (Philippines) was appointed as Rapporteur by acclamation.
25. The Chairperson of the General Assembly referred to document 31C/REP.15 Report by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage on its Activities (2000-2001). He explained that the World Heritage Committee, at its sixteenth session held in December 1992 in Santa Fe, United States of America, recommended that the report which the Committee addressed to the General Conference also be presented to the General Assembly of States Parties.
26. Dr Christina Cameron (Canada), Chairperson of the World Heritage Committee presented the report of ...
13 GA 44-47
Examination of the statement of accounts of the World Heritage Fund, including the status of the States Parties' contributions
44. In conformity with the Financial Rules of the World Heritage Fund, the representative of the Comptroller presented for examination by the General Assembly, document WHC-2001/CONF.206/3a which contained:
the accounts of the World Heritage Fund for the financial period 1998-1999, certified by the auditors within the framework of the UNESCO General Audit; and
the Fund accounts for the year 2000 approved by the Comptroller and which will be part of the external audit for the financial period 2000-2001.
45. He explained each one of the financial statements and tables contained in ...
48. The representative of the Bureau of the Comptroller presented the documents WHC-2001/CONF.206/3b and WHC-2001/CONF.206/3b.Add, containing the compulsory and voluntary contributions to the World Heritage Fund as at 30 September and revised as at 22 October 2001. He indicated that the state of compulsory and voluntary contributions would be updated for the next session of the Committee in Helsinki in December 2001.
49. The Delegate of Thailand referred to the last page of document WHC-2001/CONF.206/3b, State of contributions as at 31 August 2001, and requested clarification regarding ...
13 GA 52
Determination of the amount of the contributions to the World Heritage Fund in accordance with the provisions of Article 16 of the World Heritage Convention
52. The Chairperson presented the document WHC-2001/CONF.206/4 to the General Assembly for a decision as to whether the level of compulsory contributions to the World Heritage Fund should be maintained at 1% of the amount of contributions of States Parties to the Regular Budget of UNESCO, in accordance with Article 16, paragraph 1 of the Convention, inline with the decision of previous General Assemblies. The General Assembly took note of the document and unanimously approved this proposal.
13 GA 53-73
Representivity of the World Heritage List (follow-up to the Resolution adopted by the twelfth General Assembly of States Parties)
53. The Chairperson referred to document WHC-2001/CONF.206/5 and requested the General Assembly to take note of the decision of the World Heritage Committee at its twenty-fourth session in Cairns 2000.
54. The Director of the World Heritage Centre recalled that a Resolution had been adopted by the 12th General Assembly concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage. Furthermore, he acknowledged the work of the Working Group that was chaired by H.E. Ambassador Yai (Benin) in 2000 whose mandate was to make recommendations, based on the Resolution, towards improving ...
25 BUR III.52
Report on the activities undertaken by the Secretariat since the twenty-fourth session of the Committee
A meeting of a small Drafting Group to prepare the revision of the Operational Guidelines will be held at UNESCO Headquarters from 8 to 12 October 2001 instead of 10-14 September 2001 as originally arranged.
On an exceptional basis, the Bureau decided to allocate the sum of US$30,000 from the World Heritage Fund in 2001 (Chapter III – International Assistance) for the organisation of the meeting of the Drafting ...
V.2 The Bureau was informed that the Minister of State for the Environment, by letter of 19 June 2001, notified the Centre that the Colon Road had been definitively closed as of 13 June 2001. Nearly 300 cadres belonging to the Brazilian Federal Police took part in the operation, sinking the raft used as transport and scarifying the 17 km road. Replanting of the impacted area with native species is now completed. The local people are not happy about the closure of the road and the Government of Brazil is seeking the co-operation ...
Sites: Iguaçu National Park
V.6 The Bureau noted that the State Party has yet to respond to the recommendations of the twenty-fourth session of the Committee (Cairns, 2000). The Bureau learnt that the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences prepared, with financial support from the Ramsar Small Grants Fund for Wetlands Conservation and Wise Use, a management plan for Srebarna. The Ramsar Bureau has recommended the establishment of an indicator system with several simple, specific and easily measurable parameters to systematically monitor and rapidly detect changes in the ...
Sites: Srebarna Nature Reserve
V.8 The Bureau noted that representatives of the Centre, IUCN, the State Party and the Earth Conservancy, a conservation NGO working closely with the State Party to protect the site, undertook a site visit from 5 to 13 May 2001 to assess the state of conservation and prepare a rehabilitation plan for the site. The Bureau took note of the detailed conclusions and recommendations of the mission report, including description of urgent actions needed for the rehabilitation of the site, outlined in ...
V.15 This site too has been threatened by coltan miners. Efforts to control poaching and mining have been somewhat more successful in Okapi than in Kahuzi Biega. The armed forces of Uganda assisted the staff to evict several poachers from Okapi in late 2000. The leader of the rebel group in control of this part of the DRC territory had ordered the removal of all miners from the site. Effective action is being taken by the staff and the rebel forces in the area and the threat to this site from miners and poachers has been brought under some degree of ...
Sites: Okapi Wildlife Reserve
V.18 This was the only site under direct control of ICCN-Kinshasa. In Salonga, the Director General of ICCN has developed a number of small projects supporting the conservation of key wildlife species in co-operation with NGO partners like the Zoological Society of Milwaukee (ZSM) and the Max Plank Institute (MPI) of Germany. IUCN has been informed by ICCN that uncontrolled poaching of elephants and the bonobos, lack of equipment for staff for anti-poaching work, insufficient numbers of guards and inadequate training available for guards are some ...
Sites: Salonga National Park
V.29 The Bureau learned that a Centre/IUCN mission was fielded to the site from 8 to 13 April 2001 and noted the detailed report on the conclusions and recommendations of the mission submitted as WHC-2001/CONF.205/INF.7.
V.30 The Bureau was informed that a high-level mission to the site had been fielded in March 2000 by the Amhara Regional Government which is now directly responsible for the Park. As a result of that mission, a high-level Simen Mountains Development and Conservation Co-ordination Committee, chaired ...
Sites: Simien National Park
V.34 The Bureau learned that the Centre has been co-operating with the Fauna and Flora International (FFI), a conservation NGO working with the Governments of the two States Parties, and with Liberia which embraces parts of the Mt Nimba ecosystem. Two meetings to promote dialogue among the three countries, FFI, the Centre and other stakeholders were planned for 2001. The meetings were intended to contribute to the long-term conservation of Mt Nimba by: establishing and encouraging contacts between technical staff, site managers, decision-makers and ...
V.36 The Bureau was informed that the State Party has not yet responded to the conclusions and recommendations of the UNESCO/IUCN mission undertaken to the site in October 2000. The Bureau noted that Rio Platano has been included as a pilot site in two projects approved by the UN Foundation for execution by the Centre in July 2000. They are: UNESCO/UNEP/RARE Center for Tropical Conservation project on "Linking Conservation of Biological Diversity with Sustainable Tourism Development at World Heritage sites"; and the UNESCO/IUCN project on: "Enhancing ...
V.38 The Bureau was informed that the IUCN/Centre mission to the site, foreseen for May 2001, is now postponed until October/November 2001 due to climatic and security related reasons. IUCN has received reports that indicate continuing insurgency in the area. Alleged in-fighting within the United Liberation Front of Assam is speculated to have caused a movement of insurgents into the Sanctuary in December 2000 from the Bhutan side of the transborder Manas ecosystem. The Chief Minister of Assam has informed the State Assembly that offensive operations ...
Sites: Manas Wildlife Sanctuary