Decision 39 COM 6

Follow-up to the World Heritage Capacity Building strategy and Progress report on the World Heritage-related Category 2 Centres

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC-15/39.COM/6,
2. Recalling decisions 36 COM 6, 36 COM 9B, 37 COM 5E, 37 COM 6 and 38 COM 6 adopted at its 36th (Saint-Petersburg, 2012), 37th (Phnom Penh, 2013) and 38th (Doha, 2014) sessions respectively,
3. Commends the progress made in the implementation of the World Heritage Capacity-Building Strategy (WHCBS), its accompanying World Heritage Capacity-Building Programme, and the capacity-building activities carried out in 2014 and in the beginning of 2015;
4. Notes with appreciation the continued support of the Government of Switzerland in the implementation of the World Heritage Capacity-Building Programme;
5. Acknowledges the acute need, however, for significant additional contributions and support in order for the programme to be able to reach its goal, and calls upon other States Parties and organizations to provide additional funding and support for the implementation of the World Heritage Capacity-Building Programme and associated activities at the international and regional levels;
6. Takes note of the development of the regional capacity-building strategies and initiatives as a follow up to the second cycle of the Periodic Reporting exercise in all regions, and calls upon States Parties and all concerned partners and stakeholders to follow-up on the implementation of the strategies developed for each region;
7. Encourages the ongoing efforts by the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies to establish a biennial recognition of best practices, notably through identifying extrabudgetary financial support towards the implementation of this activity;
8. Welcomes the progress made by all category 2 centres related to World Heritage in implementing their activities and calls on interested stakeholders to support the activities of these centres;
9. Requests the World Heritage Centre and ICCROM to submit a progress report on the implementation of the World Heritage Capacity-Building Strategy and the activities of the category 2 centres related to World Heritage for examination by the Committee at its 40th session in 2016.