Decision 40 COM 10B.5

Follow-up to the Second Cycle of the Periodic Reporting Exercise for the Europe and North America region

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/16/40.COM/10B,
2. Recalling Decisions 36 COM 10B, 37 COM 10B, 38 COM 10A.2, 39 COM 10A.1 and 39 COM 10B.5 adopted at its 36th (Saint Petersburg, 2012), 37th (Phnom Penh, 2013), 38th (Doha, 2014) and 39th (Bonn, 2015) sessions respectively,
3. Welcomes progress made by the World Heritage Centre and the States Parties in the follow-up of the Second Cycle of Periodic Reporting in Europe and North America, and notes with satisfaction the activities and initiatives that have been undertaken by States Parties in the implementation of the Action Plans for Europe and for North America;
4. Also notes with satisfaction the two publications produced by the World Heritage Centre, World Heritage in Europe Today and Understanding World Heritage in Europe and North America: Final Report of the Second Cycle of Periodic Reporting, 2012-2015 (World Heritage Paper Series, no. 43), which contribute to the wide dissemination of the results of the second cycle of Periodic Reporting in Europe;
5. Commends the World Heritage Centre for progress made on the Helsinki Action Plan Monitoring Survey, whose innovative format will allow for data collection in a simple and cost-effective way, and encourages States Parties of the Europe region to respond to the survey launched in October 2016;
6. Reiterates its invitation to the States Parties of the Europe region to actively implement the Helsinki Action Plan and also encourages them to continue the activities towards the implementation of the Action Plan in close collaboration with the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies;
7. Further encourages the States Parties of Canada and the United States of America to continue their cooperation in the implementation of the five-year Action Plan for North America, and recalls that a number of proposed actions require the further strengthening of cooperation with the State Party of Mexico, taking into consideration the shared natural and cultural heritage of the three States Parties;
8. Also commends the States Parties for their efforts in continuing the work undertaken in the framework of the Retrospective Inventory and preparing retrospective Statements of Outstanding Universal Value, and encourages furthermore the States Parties to finalize this important work in the best of time;
9. Also reiterates that the follow-up of the Second Cycle of Periodic Reporting has considerable resource and work load implications, and encourages furthermore States Parties to financially support the implementation of the regional Action Plans through support to the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies;
10. Requests the World Heritage Centre to present a progress report, based on the results of the Helsinki Action Plan Monitoring Survey, on the follow-up activities of the Second Cycle of Periodic Reporting carried out by the States Parties in the Europe region, to the World Heritage Committee at its 41st session in 2017;
11. Also requests the States Parties of Canada and United States of America to submit a progress report on the implementation of the Action Plan to the World Heritage Centre, for presentation to the World Heritage Committee at its 42nd session in 2018.