World Heritage Centre

9 GA 1-6 Opening of the General Assembly by the Director-General or his representative

wh-support@unesco.org — Fri, 29 Oct 1993 00:00:00 EST

The Ninth General Assembly of States Parties to the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was held in Paris, at UNESCO Headquarters, on 29 and 30 October, during the twenty-seventh session of the General Conference.
One hundred and fifteen of the one hundred and thirty-six States Parties to the Convention were represented at this meeting.
The representatives of two intergovernmental organizations and two non-governmental organizations attended the meeting as observers.
The list of participants is given is Annex I of this document.
In accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly, the Secretariat of the Assembly was ensured by the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO.
In his opening address, the Assistant Director-General for Culture, representing the Director-General, spoke of the progress made in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention to which 136 States are now party; as from the Committee's sixteenth session, the World Heritage List included 378 properties in 86 countries. The success of the Convention could also be measured by the growing interest in it shown by the media and the general public, and by the numerous initiatives for publications, films, exhibitions, etc., to which it has given rise. He recalled that the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention had been celebrated enthusiastically by most of the States and the events organized on this occasion had further increased public interest. The Convention also encouraged the involvement of new partners, as, for instance, the Organization of World Heritage Finally, he reminded the States Parties of their obligation to preserve properties inscribed on the World Heritage List, and of the World Heritage Committee's increasing efforts to ensure regular monitoring of the state of these properties, with the assistance of ICOMOS, IUCN and ICCROM, and also, on a broader scale, with competence drawn from the different regions of the world.

9 GA 7 Election of the Chairperson, Vice-Chairpersons and Rapporteur of the General Assembly

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7. The General Assembly elected by acclamation Mr. C. Leventis (Cyprus) as Chairman. The General Assembly also elected unanimously the representatives of Burkina Faso, China and Tunisia as Vice-Chairmen, and Mr. H. Palma (Peru) as Rapporteur.

9 GA 8 Adoption of the Agenda of the General Assembly

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8. The draft agenda of the session was adopted.

9 GA 9 Report of the Chairperson of the World Heritage Committee

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9. In accordance with the recommendation of the World Heritage Committee at its sixteenth session, the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. R. Milne, (United States of America) presented to the General Assembly the report that the Committee was submitting to the General Conference of UNESCO. The text of Mr. Milne's presentation, as well as the Committee's report to the General Conference, is presented in Annex II to this document. The General Assembly took note of this report.

9 GA 10-12 Examination of the statement of accounts of the World Heritage Fund, including the status of the States Parties' contributions

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10. The General Assembly examined documents WHC-93/CONF.003/3 presenting the accounts of the World Heritage Fund, in accordance with the Financial Regulations of the Fund, and WHC.93/CONF.003/3 add. presenting the contributions received up to 28 October 1993. The Assembly was also informed that the following contributions had been received since 28 October 1993:

State Party Amount (US $) Year of contribution

Ethiopia 618 1992-1993

Hungary 5,563 end of 1992 and part of 1993

Mozambique 618 1992-1993

Senegal 309 1992

Portugal 3,090 part of 1993

11. The General Assembly then took note of the statement of accounts of the World Heritage Fund for the financial period ending 31 December 1991, the interim statement of accounts for the period 1992-1993 as at 30 September 1993, and the summary of .contributions received from States Parties as at 28 October 1993. The Assembly also took note of the information provided by the Secretariat concerning contributions received since 28 October 1993. During examination of the budget, the General Assembly was informed that the Secretariat was working towards improving the budget's presentation and that this matter would be examined in detail by the World Heritage Committee at its seventeenth session. The Representative of Thailand expressed the wish that the Director-General provide the World Heritage Centre with sufficient financing and personnel so it would not be necessary to finance temporary assistance at the Secretariat under the World Heritage Fund.

12. The General Assembly unanimously decided that the amount of mandatory contributions to the World Heritage Fund for the period 1994-1995, calculated in US dollars, would be maintained at 1 per cent of contributions made by States Parties to the regular programme of UNESCO, in accordance with Article 16, paragraph 1, of the Convention, as had been decided at eight previous General Assemblies.

9 GA 13-28 Elections to the World Heritage Committee

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13. Under item 8 of its agenda, the General Assembly was called upon to elect seven Members to the World Heritage Committee, to replace the following seven Members whose mandate would expire at the end of the twenty-seventh session of the General Conference: Brazil, Cuba, France, Italy, Pakistan, Tunisia, United States of America. The list of the thirty-one States Parties having submitted their candidature was read to the Assembly. Upon the proposal of the Representative of Niger, seconded by numerous delegations, the General Assembly suspended its work to consult among groups with a view to encouraging the withdrawal of candidates. Upon reconvening, the Representative of Niger announced, in the name of the African States and Arab countries, that only four candidates were maintained for this group: Mozambique, Niger, Jordan, Lebanon. After these withdrawals, the list of candidates included Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Mozambique, Niger, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Switzerland, Turkey, United States of America.

14. On the decision of the Chairman, the elections were held by secret ballot. The delegates of Germany and the Philippines were appointed tellers.

15. The results of the first ballot were as follows:

Number of States Parties eligible to vote 136

Number of States absent 36

Number of abstentions 0

Number of invalid ballot papers 3

Number of votes recorded 97

Number of votes constituting the majority required to be elected 49

No candidate received the required majority of votes, thus no State Party was elected.

16. In accordance with the Rules of Procedure, the second ballot was to be limited to those States which had obtained the greatest number of votes, provided that the number of States did not exceed twice the number of seats remaining to be filled which was seven seats. The second ballot was thus organized between the fourteen following candidates: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Guatemala, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Mozambique, Niger, Poland, United States.

17. The results of the second ballot were:

Number of States Parties eligible to vote 136

Number of States absent 43

Number of abstentions 0

Number of invalid ballot papers 4

Number of votes recorded 89

Number of votes constituting the majority required to be elected 45

States which obtained the required majority of votes were:

Japan: 49

France: 47

United States: 46

The Chairman thus declared the above States Parties elected to the World Heritage Committee.

18. Four seats remaining to be filled, the following States, having obtained the greatest number of votes, were maintained as candidates for the third ballot: Brazil, Canada, India, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Niger, Poland.

19. The results of the third ballot were as follows:

Number of States Parties eligible to vote 136

Number of States absent 43

Number of abstentions 0

Number of invalid ballot papers 3

Number of votes recorded 90

Number of votes constituting the majority required

to be elected 46

Niger, having polled 46 votes, was declared elected by the Chairman.

20. Three seats remained to be filled. Amongst the States having obtained the greatest number of votes: Brazil, Canada, India, Italy, Lebanon, Jordan, Poland, the latter two candidates had obtained the same number of votes. In accordance with the Rules of Procedure, an eliminatory vote was held between Poland and Jordan.

21. The results of this eliminatory vote were:

Number of States Parties eligible to vote 136

Number of States absent 67

Number of abstentions 0

Number of invalid ballot papers 1

Number of votes recorded 68

Poland, having obtained the greatest number of votes (41) , was maintained as a candidate for the fourth ballot.

22. The results of the fourth ballot were:

Number	of	States Parties eligible to vote	136
Number	of	States absent	61
Number	of	abstentions	0
Number	of	invalid ballot papers	1
Number	of	votes recorded	74
Number	of	votes constituting the majority required to be elected	38

No candidate having obtained the required majority of votes, no State Party was elected, and a fifth ballot was held with the same candidates.

23. The results of the fifth ballot were:

Number of States Parties eligible to vote 136

Number of States absent 68

Number of abstentions 0

Number of invalid ballot papers 1

Number of votes recorded 67

Number of votes constituting the majority required to be elected 34

Italy, having polled 36 votes, was declared elected by the Chairman.

24. Two seats remaining to be filled, the following States, having received the greatest number of votes, were maintained as candidates for the sixth ballot: Brazil, Canada, Lebanon, Poland.

25. The results of the sixth ballot were:

Number of States Parties eligible to vote 136

Number of States absent 77

Number of Abstentions 0

Number of invalid ballot papers 1

Number of votes recorded 58

Number of votes constituting the majority required 30

No candidate having obtained the required majority, no State Party was elected, and a seventh ballot was held with the same candidates.

26. The results of the seventh ballot were:

Number of States Parties eligible to vote 136

Number of States absent 35

Number of abstentions 0

Number of invalid ballot papers 1

Number of votes recorded 100

Number of votes constituting the majority required to be elected 51

Lebanon, having polled 51 votes, was declared elected by the Chairman.

27. One seat remaining to be filled, the following States, having obtained the greatest number of votes, were maintained as candidates for the eighth ballot: Brazil and Canada.

28. The results of the eighth ballot were:

Number of States Parties eligible to vote 136

Number of States absent 47

Number of abstentions 0

Number of invalid ballot papers 2

Number of votes recorded 87

Brazil, having polled 47 votes, was declared elected by the Chairman.

9 GA 29-33 Conclusions and Closure of the session

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29. The General Assembly felt that these elections showed that the voting system as set out in the Rules of Procedure was no longer suitable to the present situation. On the one hand, the requirement of obtaining an absolute majority had necessitated nine ballots, and, on the other hand, the system did not guarantee an equitable representation of the different cultures and regions of the world. Consequently, the General Assembly recommended that the revision of this item of its Rules of Procedure should be inscribed on the agenda of its next session, and requested the Secretariat to propose modifications which would take account of the different suggestions made during this session, especially regarding the requirement of absolute majority, the creation of a General Assembly Candidates Committee, and the obligation for outgoing States to abide by the Recommendation not to seek immediate re-election. The States Parties were also invited to forward to the Secretariat their written proposals in this regard.

30. Under other matters, the General Assembly recommended that its future sessions devote more time to debates of substance aimed at defining general policy directives for the implementation of the Convention.

31. The Representative of Colombia informed the General Assembly that the seventeenth session of the World Heritage Committee would be held in her country, in Cartagena, and invited all the States Parties to attend the meeting.

32. Finally, the General Assembly adopted the following declaration and requested that it be widely diffused:

"The Representatives of the States Parties to the World Heritage Convention, meeting at UNESCO on 29 and 30 October 1993, in the framework of their General Assembly:

Express their grave concern in the face of the multiplication of risks brought about by armed conflict, turmoil and acts of terrorism, which increasingly threaten the very existence of the world cultural and natural properties;

Urgently request all State Parties to the Convention to make use of the media, to strengthen educational programmes and cultural events, and to encourage all populations world-wide to respect the cultural and natural heritage of their fellow men".

33. The Chairman then closed the ninth session of the General Assembly of the States Parties to the World Heritage Convention.