Decision 18 EXT.COM 3

Organization of the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee (dates, venue, provisional agenda)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Documents WHC/23/18.EXT.COM/3 and WHC/23/18.EXT.COM/3.Add,
2. Recalling that the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee, initially scheduled from 19 to 30 June 2022, was postponed by the Bureau on 21 April 2022,
3. Also recalling that Rule 2.1 of its Rules of Procedure was suspended at its 17th extraordinary session (Decision 17 EXT.COM 3),
4. Decides to hold its extended 45th session in presentia from 10 to 25 September 2023 in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, under the Presidency of Her Highness Princess Haifa Al Mogrin (Saudi Arabia), Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of Saudi Arabia to UNESCO, designated as Chairperson, and also decides that, to give due consideration to Rule 13.3, the other Members of the Bureau shall be as follows: Argentina, Italy, Russian Federation, South Africa, Thailand, and the Rapporteur Ms. Shikha Jain (India) until the end of the extended 45th session of the World Heritage Committee;
5. Also decides that all items and sub-items that were foreseen for examination in 2022 and 2023 by its previous decisions, be examined at its extended 45th session in 2023;
6. Further recalling Decision 44 COM 16 by which it adopted the provisional agenda for its 45th session, which should have been held in 2022, adopts the following provisional agenda for its extended 45th session, including the additional items already foreseen for 2023 (indicated in bold):

   
   Provisional Agenda of the extended 45th session of the World Heritage Committee:

   1.    Opening Session

   2.    Admission of Observers

   3.    Adoption of the Agenda and the Timetable

   3A.    Adoption of the Agenda

   3B.    Adoption of the Timetable

   4.    Report of the Rapporteur of the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee (Fuzhou/online, 2021)

   5.    Report of the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies

   5A.    Report of the World Heritage Centre on its activities and the implementation of the World Heritage Committee’s decisions

   5B.    Reports of the Advisory Bodies

   5C.    Priority Africa: a Strategy for World Heritage

   5D.    The World Heritage Convention and Sustainable Development

   6.    Follow-up to the World Heritage Capacity-Building Strategy and Progress report on the World Heritage-related category 2 centres

   7.    State of conservation of World Heritage properties

   7A.    State of conservation of World Heritage properties inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger

   7B.    State of conservation of World Heritage properties inscribed on the World Heritage List

   8.    Nomination process

   8A.    Tentative Lists submitted by States Parties

   8B.    Nominations to the World Heritage List

   8C.    Update of the World Heritage List and of the List of World Heritage in Danger

   8D.    Clarifications of property boundaries and areas by States Parties

   8E.    Review and approval of retrospective Statements of Outstanding Universal Value

   9.    Global Strategy for a Representative, Balanced and Credible World Heritage List

   9A.    Upstream Process

   10.    Periodic Reports

   10A. Report on the results of the Third Cycle of the Periodic Reporting exercise in Asia-Pacific

   10B.  Report on the results of the Third Cycle of the Periodic Reporting exercise in Latin America and the Caribbean

   10C.  Follow-up on the implementation of the Action Plans for the Third Cycle of Periodic Reporting in the Africa and Arab States regions

   10D.  Progress report on the implementation of the Action Plans for the Second Cycle of Periodic Reporting in the other regions

   10E.  Progress report on the Third Cycle of Periodic Reporting in the other regions

   11.    Follow-up to Recommendations of Evaluations and Audits on Working Methods and outcomes of the ad-hoc Working Group

   12.    Revision of the Operational Guidelines

   13.    50th Anniversary of the World Heritage Convention

   14.    International Assistance

   15.    Presentation of the final accounts of the World Heritage Fund for 2020-2021, Report on the execution of the budget for the biennium 2022-2023, Budget proposal of the World Heritage Fund under the biennium 2024-2025 and Follow up Decision 44 COM 14

   16.    Other business

   17.    Election of the Chairperson, Vice-Chairpersons and Rapporteur of the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee

   18.    Provisional Agenda of the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee

   19.    Adoption of Decisions

   20.    Closing session

7. Takes note of the number of evaluations of nominations carried out by ICOMOS in 2022 and decides to provide an additional USD 409,163 to enable ICOMOS to fund the evaluation of 50 nominations in 2022-2023.