Decision 42 COM 9A

Progress Report on the reflection concerning the Upstream Process

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Documents WHC/18/42.COM/12A and WHC/18/42.COM/9A,
2. Recalling Decisions 34 COM 12.III, 35 COM 12C, 36 COM 12C, 37 COM 9, 38 COM 9A, 39 COM 11, 40 COM 9A and 41 COM 9A, adopted at its 34th (Brasilia, 2010), 35th (UNESCO, 2011), 36th (Saint-Petersburg, 2012), 37th (Phnom Penh, 2013), 38th (Doha, 2014), 39th (Bonn, 2015), 40th (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016) and 41st (Krakow, 2017) sessions respectively,
3. Also recalling the integration of the Upstream Process in Paragraphs 71 and 122 of the Operational Guidelines,
4. Welcomes the actions undertaken to improve the processes and practices prior to the consideration of nominations by the World Heritage Committee, and commends the States Parties, the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies for the pilot projects that registered progress;
5. Also takes note of the Upstream Process requests received by the deadline of 31 March 2018 and also commends States Parties, in particular those without any property inscribed on the World Heritage List, having submitted these requests;
6. Recognizing the limited available capacity of the World Heritage Centre and Advisory Bodies, and on the basis of the experience acquired so far in providing Upstream advice, and of their willingness to process all requests received in the best timely manner possible and, given that the number of requests received exceeds the set up cap of ten new Upstream Process requests per year decides to set the next deadline for receiving upstream requests at 31 March 2019 ;
7. Expresses its appreciation to the ad-hoc Working Group for its work and recommendation with regard to the definition of Upstream Process;
8. Approves the revised definition of the Upstream Process presented in document WHC/18/42.COM/12A for inclusion in the footnote of Paragraph 122 of the Operational Guidelines and requests the World Heritage Centre to integrate it in the Operational Guidelines, in the framework of the revision of the Operational Guidelines at its 43rd session in 2019;
9. Requests the World Heritage Centre, in collaboration with the Advisory Bodies, to present a progress report on the ongoing pilot projects as well as on the implementation of Upstream Process requests received, for consideration by the World Heritage Committee at its 43rd session in 2019.