Decision 43 COM 7B.44

Historic Cairo (C 89)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/19/43.COM/7B.Add,
2. Recalling Decision 41 COM 7B.77, adopted at its 41st session (Krakow, 2017),
3. Welcomes the further progress made, in conformity with its previous recommendations, in implementing measures and projects for mitigating the rapid deterioration of the property through strengthening organisational structures and activating responsibilities;
4. Also welcomes the steps undertaken by the State Party to implement Decree No. 90 issued to control development within the boundaries of the property and requests the State Party to provide further information on the mechanisms and timeframes for implementation;
5. Notes the progress made with the development of the Urban Regeneration Project for Historic Cairo (URHC), which has now been structured in three stages:
   1. 1st stage: Data collection (now completed),
   2. 2nd stage: Defining ways and means of providing an adequate legal framework, creating a special planning unit, defining priorities for various areas of the city, setting standards for heritage conservation, and developing institutional framework,
   3. 3rd stage: Preparation of an Action Plan to guide the Sustainable Development Plan for Historic Cairo;
6. Further welcomes the State Party’s intention to provide the World Heritage Centre with all studies to be carried out within the framework of URHC project and recommends that the 2nd and 3rd stages of the UHRC be carried out following the approach of 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape;
7. Also requests the State Party to provide more details and timeframes for the three stages of the URHC in terms of how the overall project is structured, the precise outcomes envisaged, in particular in relation to the institutional framework for managing the property and the proposed status of the Action Plan, and to submit details on whether the drafting of the Sustainable Development Plan is part of this project or not;
8. Further requests the State Party to provide details as to how the data collected as part of the 1st stage is being used to establish benchmarks for monitoring change over time, in relation to mitigating deterioration, and the impact of new legislative and administrative systems;
9. Welcomes furthermore the steps undertaken to promote community participation, and particularly commends the arrangements for promotion and engagement of people in the development of the URHC through various type of mass media, in line with the World Heritage Sustainable Development Policy;
10. Takes note that a joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring mission will visit the property in June 2019;
11. Finally requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2020, 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 44th session in 2020.