Decision 46 COM 7A.40

Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz (Uzbekistan) (C 885)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/24/46.COM/7A.Add,
2. Recalling Decisions 40 COM 7B.48, 41 COM 7A.57, 42 COM 7A.4, 43 COM 7A.44, 44 COM 7A.31 and 45 COM 7A.54 adopted at its 40th (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016), 41st (Krakow, 2017), 42nd (Manama, 2018), 43rd (Baku, 2019), extended 44th (Fuzhou/online, 2021) and extended 45th (Riyadh, 2023) sessions respectively,
3. Also recalling Decision 43 COM 7A.44, in which the Committee allowed the State Party two years to explore possible options for a significant boundary modification or a new nomination in order to consider again whether the property should be retained on the World Heritage List for a further period if a clear way forward has been proposed, or to delete the property, and furthermore had urged the State Party to develop a restoration plan with sufficient details to allow appropriate assessment of the potential for each option to justify Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) before proceeding with any work on a significant boundary modification or on a new nomination and further encouraged the State Party to seek upstream advice from the Advisory Bodies;
4. Further recalling Decision 45 COM 7A.54, in which the Committee concluded that the proposal submitted by the State Party should be explored further while retaining the property on the World Heritage List at that stage, and encouraged the State Party to further explore the possibility of a significant boundary modification, in line with Paragraph 166 of the Operational Guidelines, and to study and present “new justification for criteria based on an OUV that would reflect a shift away from the integrity of an overall intact city and towards an ensemble of Timurid monuments, with the urban areas seen as their essential settings” while noting that it was not possible at this stage to confirm if the new proposition could be justified, recommending specific consultations on it with the World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS on this matter;
5. Welcomes the continued efforts to explore possible ways forward for a nomination with a potential modification in criteria and/or attributes based on Timurid monuments within an urban setting, and notes that work is being led by the Agency of Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Uzbekistan in collaboration with the International Institute for Central Asian Studies (IICAS), and that a report will be submitted by 1 February 2025, following discussion by the International Advisory Committee (IAC);
6. Also notes the complexity of this process as acknowledged by the State Party, and recalls that the Committee strongly recommended that the State Party engage in a specific consultation with the World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS on procedural questions related to such work, and reiterates its recommendation that a dialogue be organised between the State Party, the World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS before any detailed work is undertaken on one approach, and requests that this dialogue be undertaken in 2024, ahead of the submission of the report announced for February 2025;
7. Confirms that the report to be submitted in February 2025 should set out an outline of a possible nomination with modified criteria/attributes based on Timurid monuments within an urban setting, in order to allow the Committee to consider, at its 47th session, whether a clear way forward for the property can be supported, in which case the State Party can develop a new nomination, in line with several of its previous decisions and in compliance with Paragraph 166 of the Operational Guidelines;
8. Welcomes the work being undertaken to develop a strategy for the conservation of the Ak Saray tiles as well as a project for their conservation, and urges the State Party to submit these as early as possible to the World Heritage Centre for review by ICOMOS before any work commences or is planned in detail;
9. Notes that engineering assessments have been commissioned for the Kok Gumbaz Mosque following the collapse of some columns and that further engineering assessments will be conducted in 2024 to consider actions to address identified cracks and displacements;
10. Recommends that conservation plans be prepared for both Ak Saray and Kok Gumbaz, given the very different challenges that each faces, as well as for other individual monuments, as previously recommended by the Committee;
11. Notes that further analysis of the conservation needs of monuments will be undertaken based on the initial assessment of historic monuments undertaken in 2021, and that the State Party considers that most monuments are currently in a good state of conservation, but also takes notes that this assessment does not align with the statement that erosion and salinity of the mud-walled structures, and earthquakes threaten  the property, and therefore requests the State Party to clarify which monuments face these threats and how these will be addressed;
12. Reiterates its request for the development of an overall Master Plan for the city that integrates heritage conservation needs, the Management Plan, proposals for restoration and reconstruction, as well as planning and legal frameworks, prepared in line with the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL Recommendation) and further requests that a draft of the Master Plan be submitted at the earliest opportunity to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies;
13. Requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2025, 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 47th session;
14. Decides to retain Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz (Uzbekistan) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.