World Heritage Centre

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

wh-support@unesco.org — Sat, 02 Nov 1991 00:00:00 EST

The Eighth General Assembly of States Parties to the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage met in Paris, on 2 November 1991, during the twenty-sixth session of the General Conference.
Eighty-one out of the hundred and seventeen States which were Parties to the Convention as at 31 October 1991 and which had the right to vote were represented at the meeting. A State having just ratified the Convention was also present.
Representatives of ten States not Parties to the Convention participated in the General Assembly as observers. Representatives of an intergovernmental organization and of three non-governmental organizations also attended the meeting in an observer capacity.
The List of Participants to the General Assembly is given in 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 Secretariat of Unesco.
In his opening speech, the Assistant Director-General for Culture, representing the Director-General, drew attention to the progress achieved in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention. He informed the Assembly that since the last General Assembly the number of States Parties had increased from 111 to 117 and the number of cultural and natural sites inscribed on the World Heritage List had risen from 315 to 337 spread over the territory of 73 States Parties. He added that the assistance provided to States Parties under the World Heritage Fund for the preservation of their properties inscribed on the List was the most concrete expression of the system of solidarity created through the Convention. Since the creation of the World Heritage Fund, technical co-operation has been financed for an amount of 9,484,505 dollars of the United States of America, of which 3,743,916 dollars have been allocated for the training of specialists. In this respect, he recalled that the assistance provided was dependent on the contributions made by States Parties. He underlined the particularly high number of contributions due for the period 1990-1991 and appealed to the States Parties to guarantee the regular payment of contributions that will enable the development of international assistance to States Parties. He also drew the attention of States Parties to the events which will commemorate the celebration in 1992 of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the World Heritage Convention.

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

wh-support@unesco.org — Sat, 02 Nov 1991 00:00:00 EST

7. The General Assembly elected by acclamation Mr Adul Wichiencharoen (Thailand) as Chairman. The General Assembly also unanimously elected the representatives of Brazil, Morocco, Pakistan, and Senegal as Vice-Chairmen, and Ms Catherine Delaporta (Greece) as Rapporteur.

8 GA 8 Adoption of the Agenda of the General Assembly

wh-support@unesco.org — Sat, 02 Nov 1991 00:00:00 EST

8. The agenda of the session was unanimously adopted after inversion of items 7 and 8 of the provisional agenda.

8 GA 12 Ways and means to ensure a more representative World Heritage List

wh-support@unesco.org — Sat, 02 Nov 1991 00:00:00 EST

12. When examining item 7 of the agenda concerning the means of ensuring an equitable representation of different regions and cultures of the world on the World Heritage Committee, the Assembly expressed the wish to be presented regularly with the charts prepared by the Secretariat: one presenting for each State Party the periods during which they have been members of the Committee, the other showing the distribution of Member States of the Committee according to the different regions. One delegate recalled that the seventh General Assembly had questioned the opportunity of increasing the number of Committee members because of the growing number of States Parties. The Assembly took note of the working document prepared by the Secretariat and expressed the wish that the matter be further considered by the World Heritage Committee.

8 GA 13-17 Elections to the World Heritage Committee

wh-support@unesco.org — Sat, 02 Nov 1991 00:00:00 EST

13. Under item 8 of its agenda the General Assembly was called on to elect seven Members to the World Heritage Committee to replace the following seven Members who would have completed their term of office at the end of the twenty-sixth session of the General Conference: Bulgaria, Canada, Greece, India, Mexico, United Republic of Tanzania, and Yemen. The list of States Parties having submitted their candidature was read out to the Assembly. In accordance with Article 16, paragraph 5, of the Convention, the list of candidates was limited to those States Parties which had paid their contributions to the World Heritage Fund up to and including 1990. The following States Parties were declared candidates: China, Cyprus, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico, Philippines, Romania, Spain, Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe.

14. On the decision of the Chairman, the elections took place by secret ballot. The delegates of Oman and Peru were appointed tellers.

The results of the first ballot which were announced by the Chairman were as follows:

First Ballot

Number of States Parties voting 117

Number of States absent 36

Number of abstentions 0

Number of invalid ballot papers 4

Number of votes recorded 81

Number of votes constituting the majority required to be elected 41

States obtaining the required majority of votes:

Egypt	59	Germany	51
China	57	Mexico	45
Spain	57	Philippines	44

The Chairman declared elected to the World Heritage Committee after the first ballot the above-mentioned States Parties.

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. Among the remaining candidates, Cyprus and Finland obtained the greatest number of votes. A second ballot limited to these two States was held.

17. The results of the second ballot, which were announced by the Chairman, were as follows:

Second Ballot

Number of States Parties voting 117

Number of States absent 54

Number of abstentions 0

Number of invalid ballot papers 0

Number of votes recorded 63

Number of votes constituting the majority required to be elected 32

State obtaining the required majority of votes:

Cyprus 39

The Chairman declared Cyprus elected to the World heritage Committee after the second ballot.

8 GA 18 Other business

wh-support@unesco.org — Sat, 02 Nov 1991 00:00:00 EST

18. Under item 9 of the agenda "Other business", the representative of Mauritania seconded by another delegate requested that the summary record of the debates mention his regret at the fact that the elections had not in the least improved the geographical distribution, which was recognized by everyone to be necessary. Indeed, no African State south of the Sahara had been elected, and this region was thus represented on the Committee by only one State.It was furthermore suggested that the Secretariat prepare for the next General Assembly a revised project of its Rules of Procedure with the intention of improving the working methods of the General Assembly.

8 GA 19 Closure of the session

wh-support@unesco.org — Sat, 02 Nov 1991 00:00:00 EST

19. The Chairman drew the attention of the delegates on a draft amendment, presented by 48 Member States of UNESCO, concerning the "Reinforcement of the Action of UNESCO for the Protection of the World Cultural Heritage" which was later submitted to the General Conference in plenary. He then said he was pleased with the positive attitude which had emerged during the debates and declared the eighth General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Committee closed.