ICOMOS General Assembly meets in New Delhi, India

The triennial meeting of the International Council on Monuments and Sites will take place in New Delhi, India.

From 11 to 15 December 2017, the 19th ICOMOS General Assembly will take place in New Delhi, India, accompanied by a Scientific Symposium on “Heritage & Democracy”. UNESCO will be represented by the Director of the Heritage Division and the World Heritage Centre, Dr Mechtild Rössler, together with staff members of the World Heritage Centre and the UNESCO Office in New Delhi.

The large-scale ICOMOS General Assembly occurs every three years and provides an opportunity for up to 1,500 heritage practitioners and researchers associated with ICOMOS to gather and exchange in a spirit of international cooperation.

The Scientific Symposium will provide an opportunity for dialogue on important topics in the field of cultural heritage management today, notably the “Nature/Culture Journey”, launched last year at the IUCN World Congress in Hawaii. This joint initiative by IUCN and ICOMOS helps promote effective conservation by integrating nature and culture, which is also one of the key characteristics of the 1972 World Heritage Convention, and encourages heritage practitioners to rethink how natural and cultural heritage are interrelated, and how to build synergies across different fields and sectors.

The meeting will also address the integration of communities in heritage management and sustainable urban development practices, and a panel will be dedicated to the protection and interpretation of cultural heritage in the digital age. Finally, a panel will address the role of cultural heritage for peace and reconciliation, a topic at the core of UNESCO’s missions and which echoes the Organization’s advocacy for the positive role that culture can play in post-conflict situations and beyond.

As the representative of UNESCO at this General Assembly, Dr Mechtild Rössler, the Director of the Heritage Division and the World Heritage Centre, will address the Assembly and its various working groups on numerous occasions, providing input from the UNESCO Secretariat on synergies between culture and nature, between the different UNESCO Conventions and Programmes, and on culture and sustainable development.

The programme is available online. [link: icomosga2017.org/programme/]