Decision 40 COM 7B.48

Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz (Uzbekistan) (C 885)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/16/40.COM/7B.Add,
2. Recalling Decision 39 COM 7B.74, adopted at its 39th session (Bonn, 2015),
3. Regrets that the State Party has not responded to the concerns, recommendations and requests formulated in previous Committee Decisions; that it has not provided detailed plans and documentation or Heritage Impact Assessments (HIAs) of the “State Programme for complex measures for building and reconstruction of Shakhrisyabz city”; and that it has failed to halt works until the necessary assessments and reviews have been carried out;
4. Takes note with deep concern of the report provided by the 2016 joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring mission, which observed that major interventions had been carried out to date in the framework of the State Programme, including the demolition and re-building activities that have brought about irreversible changes to the original appearance of large area within the historic centre of Shakhrisyabz, the setting of the architectural monuments and the overall historical town planning structure and layers;
5. Also expresses its deep concern that the State Party has not complied with the requests expressed by the Committee in Decision 39 COM 7B.74, and that the aforementioned interventions already represent a threat to the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, notably its integrity and authenticity, in accordance with Paragraph 179 (b) of the Operational Guidelines;
6. Decides to inscribe the Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz (Uzbekistan) on the List of World Heritage in Danger;
7. Urges the State Party to immediately suspend all tourism development and reconstruction projects within the property and in the adjacent areas, and requests, as a matter of priority, the State Party to:
   1. Immediately halt all demolition of traditional housing areas, pending the development of Heritage Impact Assessments (HIAs), the elaboration and finalisation of appropriate conservation policies/guidelines and of the Management Plan, and the detailed review of large-scale urban planning schemes for Shakhrisyabz,
   2. Provide detailed documentation of the demolition and other works undertaken under the “Tourism Development and Reconstruction” projects,
   3. Reinforce national laws and regulations on the protection of cultural heritage, with a specific focus on World Heritage properties in Uzbekistan, and adopt bylaws/regulations to support the implementation of the Convention at national level,
   4. Reinforce the heritage protection and management system by establishing a special agency responsible for the protection and management of World Heritage property, and providing it with adequate human and financial resources;
8. Also requests the State Party to invite, as a matter of urgency, a joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring mission to the property in order to identify the precise threats to the OUV of the property, in collaboration with key national and international stakeholders, and to determine whether corrective measures and a Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR) can be defined, or whether the works undertaken so far have so irreversibly damaged the attributes that sustain the OUV of the property, notably its authenticity and integrity, that the property can no longer convey the OUV for which it was inscribed and should therefore be considered for possible deletion from the World Heritage List at a later session;
9. Further requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2017, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 41st session in 2017.