By Decision 45 COM 11, the World Heritage Committee decided during its extended 45th session (Riyadh, 2023) to create an Open-ended Working Group of States Parties to the Convention, transfer the mandate of the ad-hoc Working Group to it and allow all States Parties to the Convention to continue contributing to the discussions in order to:
As per Decision 45 COM 11, the Open-ended Working Group will work in consultation with the World Heritage Centre, Advisory Bodies and as appropriate, relevant stakeholders, and will submit its report and recommendations to the 46th session of the Committee. States Parties are also invited to voluntarily contribute to the creation of this Open-ended Working Group through voluntary contributions.
9 February 2024 (Room XI/online), 2.30pm – 5.30pm
This inception meeting was the occasion to proceed to the election of a Bureau (i.e., Chairperson, 4 Vice-Chairpersons and a Rapporteur), to discuss the expected outcomes and to decide on the frequency and length of the meetings.
Bureau of the Open-ended Working Group:
25-26 April 2024 (Room XI/online), 10.00am-1.00pm / 3.00pm-6.00pm
This second meeting of the Open-ended Working Group took place both in praesentia at UNESCO HQ (Room XI) and online on both 25 and 26 April 2024.
Biography of the invited keynote speakers
Presentations
22-23 May 2024 (Room XI/online), 10.00am-1.00pm / 3.00pm-6.00pm
The third meeting of the Open-ended Working Group took place both in praesentia at UNESCO HQ (Room XI) and online on both 22 and 23 May 2024.
21 June 2024 (Room XI/online), 10.00am-1.00pm
The fourth meeting of the Open-ended Working Group will take place both in praesentia at UNESCO HQ (Room XI) and online in the morning of 21 June 2024.
Online participation
States Parties or Advisory Bodies representatives wishing to join the meeting online in an active manner (i.e., with the possibility to request the floor) will need to register beforehand at the following link: https://unesco-org.zoom.us/j/89048617375 (Meeting ID: 890 4861 7375; passcode: 927212). The deadline to register is 20 June 2024 by 6.00 pm (Paris time). Past this time, access to the meeting will not be guaranteed. Online participants are kindly requested to rename their “screen name” as follows: “Country / followed by Name” so that all participants can easily identify the country they represent.
In praesentia participation
States Parties and Advisory Bodies were kindly requested to inform the Secretariat (both b.achache@unesco.org and d.martel@unesco.org) by Tuesday 18 June about the names of the experts who will participate in the meeting at UNESCO Headquarters but don’t hold UNESCO badges, in order to issue access badges for them. Badges will be available for collection at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre on 20 June, Office 3.010, main building, 3rd floor (blue wing).
1994: Expert Meetinq on the "Global Strategy" and thematic studies for a representative World Heritaqe List (UNESCO Headquarters, 20-22 June 1994) – Document WHC-94/CONF.003/INF.6
1996: Report of the Experts Meeting on Evaluation of general principles and criteria for nominations of natural World Heritage sites (Parc de la Vanoise, France, 22-24 March 1996) – Document WHC-96/CONF.202/INF.9
1996: Information on Tentative Lists – Document WHC-96/CONF.201/8
1998: Progress Report, Synthesis and Action Plan on the Global Strategy for a representative and credible World Heritage List – Document WHC-98/CONF.203/12
2000: Global Training Strategy – Document WHC-2000/CONF.204/18
2002: Progress report on the analyses of the World Heritage List and Tentative Lists and the identification of underrepresented categories of natural and cultural heritage – Document WHC-02/CONF.201/6
2004: Working methods of the World Heritage Committee – Document WHC-04/7 EXT.COM/4B
2004: Evaluation of the Global Strategy for a representative, balanced and credible World Heritage List (1994-2004) – Document WHC-04/28.COM/13
2009: Reflection on the future of the World Heritage Convention – Document WHC-09/33.COM/14A
2011: Evaluation of the Global Strategy and the PACT initiative – Document WHC-11/35.COM/INF.9A
2011: Managing Disaster Risks for World Heritage
2011: Preparing World Heritage Nominations
2011: Global Strategy for a representative, balanced and credible World Heritage List – Document WHC-11/35.COM/9B
2012: Progress report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Evaluation of the Global Strategy and the PACT initiative – Document WHC-12/36.COM/9A
2012: Managing Natural World Heritage
2013: Managing Cultural World Heritage
2017: Comparative Mapping Study of Forms and Models for Use of Advisory Services by International Instruments and Programmes – Document WHC/17/41.COM/INF.14.II
2020: Guidance on Developing and Revising World Heritage Tentative Lists
2019: Outcomes of the Reflection meeting on reforming the World Heritage Nomination Process (Tunis, 23-25 January 2019) – Document WHC/19/43.COM/INF.8
2023: Revision of the Operational Guidelines – Document WHC/23/45.COM/12
The World Heritage Committee,
The World Heritage Committee,