Training for national and local authorities in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention in Afghanistan

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Decides to reinstate the originally budgeted amount for the Global Strategy biennial budget Chapter II.1 for the Caribbean region. The final figures thus become US$20,000 for the year 2002, and US$25,000 for the year 2003;

2. Decides to create a line "Additional services ICOMOS/IUCN" under Chapter II.3 for an amount of US$20,000 to compensate for workload increases and unbalances between the Advisory Bodies;

3. Decides to reduce in compensation the amounts provided for the Operational Guidelines under Chapter I.3 by US$28,000 for 2003;

4. Decides that an amount of US$150,000 be provided for the assistance to Afghanistan [13] (US$50,000 in year 2002 and US$100,000 in year 2003), to finance the following activities to support national efforts for rehabilitating Afghan cultural and natural heritage : in 2002, Training for National Capacity Building and an IUCN mission for elaborating a natural heritage national plan; in 2003, elaboration of project proposals by the World Heritage Centre to mobilize international technical and financial support; Natural Heritage Documentation for elaborating a Tentative List; Cultural Heritage Documentation for re-establishing the national inventory and for elaborating a Tentative List; conservation and management of the Minaret and Archaeological Remains of Jam; preparation of the reformulation of the nomination dossier of the Monuments and Sites of Bamiyan Valley; examining the state of conservation and formulating a nomination dossier for the Lakes of Bandi-e-Amir;

5. Decides that a financial allocation of US$150,000 be provided in favour of the protection of the cultural heritage of the Palestinian territories [14] in year 2003 from the Emergency Reserve Fund in support to the following actions envisaged: definition of a detailed plan of action for the implementation of the foreseen activities, and particularly for the establishment of an inventory of the cultural and natural heritage of potential outstanding universal value within the Palestinian Territories; the assessment of its state of conservation and the identification of measures for its preservation and rehabilitation; as well as for the training and capacity building of Palestinian specialists in the field of preservation and safeguarding of cultural and natural heritage and heritage information management. Selected conservation measures could be also included in the Plan of Action.

[13] See also decision 26 COM 22.

[14] See also decisions 26 COM 6.1 and 26 COM 6.2.