Decision 46 COM 7B.2

Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra (Albania) (C 569bis)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/24/46.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decisions 39 COM 7B.75, 41 COM 7B.40, 43 COM 7B.79, 44 COM 7B.151 and 45 COM 7B.51 adopted at its 39th (Bonn, 2015), 41st (Krakow, 2017), 43rd (Baku, 2019), extended 44th (Fuzhou/online, 2021) and extended 45th (Riyadh, 2023) sessions respectively,
3. Welcomes the State Party’s commitment to upgrade urban planning regulations for both the Berat and Gjirokastra components of the property, requests the State Party to clarify the interlinkages between the Integrated Management Plan (IMP) and the separate plans for the ‘preservation, protection and administration’ to:
   1. Ensure that all planning and management instruments work together to protect and maintain the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property,
   2. Harmonise the differences between the former regulations and the plans, and
   3. Make specific reference in the plans to the OUV and its attributes;
4. Reiterates its request to the State Party to develop an integrated urban conservation and development tool and to diversify its development plans for the property to stimulate a broad, resilient economic base for its future and recommends that it be developed in line with the implementation of the UNESCO 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL Recommendation);
5. Notes with regret that, despite its previous requests, the State Party has not fully implemented the project for the development of the IMP for the property in cooperation with the governmental and civil sectors, funded through international assistance provided by the World Heritage Fund, urges the State Party to further update the IMP as a matter of priority taking into account the comments and recommendations already made by the Advisory Bodies and actively involving the local authorities of Berat and Gjirokastra, and also requests the State Party to submit a pre-final draft to serve as a basis for any further assistance from the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies;
6. Further notes with regret the completion of the construction of the Gjirokastra bypass road without having implemented the requests of the Committee, and therefore further requests the State Party to urgently complete a full independent Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) of the Gjirokastra bypass road, to be submitted to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies;
7. Requests furthermore the State Party to undertake an integrated HIA to assess the impact of the numerous infrastructure and development projects within or in the wider setting of the property, including individual ongoing projects within the Project for Integrated Urban and Tourism Development (PIUTD), both individually and cumulatively, against the state of conservation, integrity and authenticity of the property at the time of its inscription, and to submit it to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies;
8. Notes with concern that the recommendations of the 2021 joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS/ICCROM Reactive Monitoring mission have not been implemented, and reiterates its request to the State Party to implement these in full;
9. Also notes with concern that details of all development projects that may affect the OUV of the property have not been submitted to the World Heritage Centre and reiterates its request to the State Party to:
   1. Submit the project details to the World Heritage Centre for review prior to any irreversible approval or decision, in accordance with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines, and
   2. Commission HIAs focusing on the OUV of the property in accordance with Paragraph 118bis of the Operational Guidelines and carried out in accordance with the Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context, and recalls that such documents, or at least their executive summaries, should be submitted to the World Heritage Centre in one of the working languages of the Committee;
10. Requests moreover the State Party to continue its efforts to limit the occurrence of illegal construction activities in the property;
11. Finally 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.