:	Bernd von Droste Director UNESCO World Heritage Centre 7, place de Fontenoy 75352 Paris 07 SP France Fax: +33 1 45 68 55 70
Circular Letter/WHC/4/97/ST:nd	7 May 1997

To:

• Permanent Delegations and Observer Missions of all States Parties to the World Heritage Convention
• National Commissions for UNESCO of all States Parties to the World Heritage Convention
• All UNESCO Regional Offices and UNESCO Representatives
• Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee (IUCN, ICOMOS and ICCROM)

Madam/Sir,

Subject: Selection of Experts for activities relating to the implementation of the World Heritage Convention

At the twentieth session of the World Heritage Committee held in Merida, Mexico, in December 1996, several members of the World Heritage Committee asked that a broad list of experts on World Heritage be established by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. The record of the Committee’s decision on this matter is extracted below for your reference.

XIV.3 ... the Committee reflected a general concern for experts’ meetings being held without political decision-makers participating. Several delegates indicated that such meetings should not always be confined to the same experts from the Advisory Bodies as in the past, and, to the extent possible, should be broadened to include participants from the proposed States Parties’ “list of experts” which was proposed by the Delegate of Italy. ... Several delegations noted that they had unfortunate experiences with repeated use of the same experts. They also noted that there was the need for an open selection process for experts to avoid repeating past mistakes (Extract from 1996 World Heritage Committee Report, page 96).

I am writing to you now to determine what are the institutions, and who are the individuals, in your country to whom we may write to seek expert advice on World Heritage matters in the future. The objective is to broaden the basis for selection of World Heritage experts for conservation activities and projects (including expert meetings, missions, etc.), and also to prepare a "list of experts" (individuals and institutions) who could provide technical and academic expertise and political decision-making on World Heritage policy issues (such as the development of the Global Strategy, revisions to the Operational Guidelines, etc.) in the future.

This would also enable the Centre to improve our information base to create an address list of key institutions and individual expert contacts on heritage conservation in your country. These institutions could provide expert assistance in the context of missions to States Parties, in bilateral, multilateral and extra-budgetary projects, as well as to the Advisory Bodies (IUCN, ICOMOS and ICCROM) on World Heritage technical and policy matters. In providing these lists you may also wish to indicate if the experts are members of IUCN, ICOMOS, ICCROM or other non-governmental organizations relevant to World Heritage conservation.

Attached to this Circular Letter as an Annex is a form which you may wish to use to provide the requested information. Thank you in advance for your kind cooperation and collaboration in this very important exercise.

With many thanks for your support in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention in your country, please accept the assurances of my highest consideration.

:	Yours sincerely, Bernd von Droste Director UNESCO World Heritage Centre