2419 news
Tuesday, 21 June 2005
The results of the latest geological and geophysical surveys conducted at the site of the Peking Man in Zhoukoudian (China) will be presented at the Espace EDF Electra, 6 rue Récamier, 75007 Paris, on Tuesday July 5 (11 a.m.) during a joint UNESCO/EDF scientific conference. The symposium will bring together Yves Coppens, Professor at the Collège de France, Yves Bamberger, Research and ...
2 min read
Tuesday, 14 June 2005
Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura awarded diplomas and medals to colleagues who had completed 25 and 30 years of service to UNESCO at a June 14 ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France. 29 individuals joined UNESCO or the UN in 1975, including Mrs Marielle Richon and Mrs Silvia Simmonds of the World Heritage Centre.62 individuals joined UNESCO or the UN in 1980, including Mrs ...
Monday, 30 May 2005
The Symposium, an activity of the World EXPO 2005 in Aïchi, Japan has opened today at the United Nations University, Tokyo, and will continue until 2 June. It aims to highlight the interrelationship between the natural and cultural diversity of our planet. Bringing culture and nature closer together in a comprehensive approach, the symposium will present case studies on sacred natural sites ...
1 min read
Monday, 9 May 2005
Growing understanding that the outstanding universal value of urban heritage goes well beyond the value of the individual buildings it contains, has created a pressing need for internationally accepted guidelines and criteria for the preservation of historic city centres.
Conservationists, municipalities, architects and developers will address the issue at the Conference on World Heritage ...
3 min read
Monday, 25 April 2005
The government of Montenegro, Serbia and Montenegro, has cancelled a project to build a dam that would flood part of the Tara River Canyon in the buffering UNESCO Biosphere Reserve next to Durmitor National Park, a World Heritage site inscribed in 1980. The decision comes as the result of meetings that UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura had with the Presidents of Serbia and Montenegro ...
2 min read
Monday, 25 April 2005
Major archaeological vestiges have been discovered at the World Heritage site of Aksum (Ethiopia) by the experts UNESCO sent to Aksum (Ethiopia) to survey the World Heritage Site last week. They were sent to prepare for the elevation of the Aksum Obelisk at its original location. The last segment of the 160-tonne 24.6-metre high stele arrived at the airport of Aksum this morning. It had been ...
3 min read
Wednesday, 20 April 2005
The first of three parts of the Aksum obelisk arrived in Ethiopia by airplane on April 19. The two other pieces of the obelisk, which has been in Rome since 1937, will be sent to Aksum (a World Heritage site) in the following days.
Following a mission of UNESCO experts who conducted a field evaluation, UNESCO is to draw up the project for the installation of the obelisk and the enhancement ...
1 min read
Friday, 15 April 2005
China has signed an agreement to join UNESCO in the Open Initiative on the Use of Space Technology in Support of the World Heritage Convention. The signing - by Guo Huadong, Deputy Secretary-General of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director of its Joint Laboratory for Remote Sensing Archaeology, and Marcio Barbosa, Deputy Director-General of UNESCO – took place at Organization ...
1 min read
Thursday, 7 April 2005
The President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura and the World Bank's Vice President for Europe, Jean-François Rischard, will open a conference and an exhibition at UNESCO Headquarters celebrating the cultural heritage of Mauritania and its ancient cities of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata, on April 11 ...
2 min read
Wednesday, 6 April 2005
Accurate and detailed maps of inaccessible zones in Central Africa that will allow authorities to monitor the habitat of the region's threatened mountain gorillas, have been produced for the first time by the European Space Agency (ESA) and UNESCO. The results of this joint project, known as BEGo (Build Environment for Gorillas), will be presented at a meeting on April 7 at ESA headquarters ...
1 min read
Monday, 4 April 2005
The State of World Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (2003) is now available as publication number 12 in the World Heritage Paper Series. This publication is composed of: a paper version, providing an overview of the results of this first cycle of Periodic Reporting for the Asia-Pacific Region; and a CD-Rom which includes a synthesis of country and site-specific Periodic Reports of the ...
2 min read
Monday, 4 April 2005
On 16 February 2005, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago officially deposited with the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, its instrument of ratification, becoming the 180th State Party to adopt the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
The World Heritage Convention will enter into force for this State Party on 16 May ...
Thursday, 17 March 2005
At the request of the Ethiopian and Italian governments, UNESCO will send an evaluation team to Aksum, in northern Ethiopia, to prepare the return of its celebrated obelisk. The obelisk has been in Rome since 1937.
UNESCO will draw up the re-installation project for the obelisk and the development of the site, which will be funded by Italy. The obelisk has been cut into three sections to ...
2 min read
Wednesday, 2 March 2005
On 7 January 2005, the Government of Sierra Leone officially deposited with the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, its instrument of ratification, becoming the 179th State Party to adopt the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and natural Heritage.
This Convention, first adopted in November 1972, seeks to encourage the identification, protection and ...
1 min read
Tuesday, 1 March 2005
Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, and Frederick D. Gregory, Deputy Administrator of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), today signed a cooperation agreement at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C.
According to the agreement, UNESCO will benefit from NASA’s expertise in the earth sciences and space technology to strengthen its work ...
2 min read
Friday, 18 February 2005
The Director-General, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, paid his first official visit to St Lucia from 13 to 15 February 2005. It was the first official visit of a UNESCO Director-General to the country. He was accompanied by Mr Gilbert Chagoury, Permanent Delegate of St Lucia to UNESCO.
During his visit, the Director-General met with the highest authorities in the country. In particular, he held ...
2 min read
Monday, 7 February 2005
The World Heritage Centre participated in the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction, held in Kobe, Japan, from the 18th to the 22nd of January, 2005. This meeting was especially timely in light of the recent earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean region, and also coincided with the 10th anniversary of Kobe’s devastating 1995 earthquake. As part of the broader Kobe ...
1 min read
Wednesday, 2 February 2005
The World Heritage Centre is pleased to inform you that the Revised Operational Guidelines for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention are now available on the following Web address: https://whc.unesco.org/en/guidelines.
As decided by the Committee at its 7th Extraordinary session, the revised Operational Guidelines have entered into force on 2 February 2005, on the understanding ...
Tuesday, 1 February 2005
On 31 January 2005, the Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced retired General Pavle Strugar of the Yugoslav Peoples’ Army to eight years in prison for war crimes perpetrated in 1991. He has been found guilty of war crimes against the civilian population and, under Article 3(d) of the Tribunal’s Statute, of the destruction of and wilful ...
1 min read
Tuesday, 1 February 2005
The Curonian Spit, an elongated sand-dune peninsula straddling the border of Lithuania and the Russian Federation, will not be inscribed on UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger. The decision follows an agreement between the two countries to undertake an environmental assessment of the impact of oil exploration and production in the Baltic Sea, 22 kilometres from the World Heritage site. ...
2 min read
Wednesday, 26 January 2005
UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today opened the first meeting of a Committee of Experts on the Cultural Heritage of the Old City of Jerusalem, a site inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1981 by virtue of its outstanding cultural value. The opening session was held in the presence of the Permanent Delegates of UNESCO’s Member States and Norway’s Minister of Culture and ...
2 min read
Sunday, 23 January 2005
The decisions taken by the World Heritage Committee during its 7th Extraordinary Session, held in Paris from 6 to 11 December 2004, can now be consulted online ( whc04-7extcom-17e.pdf). During this important meeting, the Committee examined, among other things, the relations between the World Heritage Convention and other UNESCO conventions relating to heritage and considered proposals for the ...
Tuesday, 11 January 2005
The conservation community mourns the loss of several staff members of the Gunung Leuser National Park, one of the three national parks within the Tropical Rainforest of Sumatra World Heritage site.
According to most recent information, the Tropical Rainforest of Sumatra and the Ujung Kulon National Park have not sustained important damage during the recent tsunami disaster.
The ...
1 min read
Wednesday, 5 January 2005
The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, has offered UNESCO’s support to the countries devastated by the earthquake off the coast of Sumatra and the ensuing tsunami. Mr Matsuura said that "UNESCO stands ready" to assist the national authorities within its fields of competence and "give whatever support it can to the United Nations Emergency Relief ...
2 min read
Tuesday, 4 January 2005
The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, will name the internationally renowned painter, Countess Setsuko Klossowska de Rola, UNESCO Artist for Peace, in a ceremony at Organization Headquarters on January 7 (12.30 p.m.).
Countess Klossowska de Rola is being named Artist for Peace for her role in promoting the World Heritage Education Project", which was launched by UNESCO in ...
1 min read
Thursday, 30 December 2004
The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, has offered UNESCO’s support to the countries devastated by the earthquake off the coast of Sumatra and the ensuing tsunami, and expressed his sorrow at the tragic loss of life in the region. Writing to the King of Thailand, and to the presidents of India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka, the Director-General voiced his ...
3 min read
Thursday, 23 December 2004
Six case studies, looking at manager experience of how World Heritage may help to build support for protected areas are now available here
Thursday, 23 December 2004
The inscription of Bam and its Cultural Landscape, the ancient Silk Road landmark, on UNESCO’s World Heritage List and on the World Heritage List in Danger will be celebrated in a ceremony on December 27, marking the first anniversary of the earthquake that destroyed much of the site and killed more than 26,000 people.
The Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hossein Marashi, ...
4 min read
Tuesday, 14 December 2004
The 2005 UNESCO World Heritage Desk Diary is now available. Discover 54 natural and cultural sites with beautiful colour photographs and informative descriptions in English, Spanish and French. Order it at https://en.dl-servi.com/ or at UNESCO Publishing - 7 place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France.
Monday, 13 December 2004
On Friday, 27 August 2004, UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura and Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) President Katsuji Ebisawa held a public signing ceremony at NHK Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan to seal their new partnership agreement. Through the Heritage Images Archives Initiative, NHK is offering to contribute to the documenting and safeguarding of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, ...
1 min read
Tuesday, 7 December 2004
The opening and closure speeches as well as the PowerPoint presentations are now available on:
https://whc.unesco.org/en/events/95
Monday, 6 December 2004
The 7th Extraordinary Session of the World Heritage Committee opened on 6 December 2004 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, under the chairmanship of Mr Themba P. Wakashe from South Africa. The session will last until 11 December 2004.
This important meeting will examine, among other items, the relations between the Convention for the protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage ...
1 min read
Thursday, 18 November 2004
You can now access a film featuring Professor Chamaeleo, Ambassador at Large for Diversity, in which he urges everyone to unite and act for the conservation of biodiversity. The film was used to open the IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC). Prof. Chamaeleo’s compelling appeal to humanity is at http://www.diversity.info.
The production of the film was made possible with support from: ...
Friday, 22 October 2004
Within the framework of the World Heritage Central Pacific Project, a workshop was held over the previous seven days on Kiritimati (Christmas) Island, Republic of Kiribati to plan for the nomination of reef islands and atolls of Kiribati to the World Heritage List.
The World Heritage List was established by the World Heritage Convention, adopted by UNESCO in 1972 to profile and protect the ...
2 min read
Friday, 22 October 2004
There are three new publications in the World Heritage Papers Series:
No.9: Partnerships for World Heritage Cities - Culture as a Vector for Sustainable Urban Development (in English and French) provides a summary of the papers presented and the debates held at the Urbino workshop to mark the 30th anniversary of the WH Convention.
No.10: Monitoring World Heritage (in English) contains ...
1 min read
Wednesday, 20 October 2004
The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, participated today in Nara (Japan) at the opening ceremony of the international symposium “ Safeguarding of Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage: Toward an Integrated Approach” organised by Bunkacho (the Japanese Cultural Agency) and UNESCO, in the presence of Mr Toshio Kojima, Senior Vice-Minister of Ministry of Education, Culture, ...
2 min read
Friday, 15 October 2004
A new partnership between UNESCO and the Japanese Television channel NHK will see the co-production and broadcast of some 200 short television programmes that will form of the core of a new Heritages Image Archives Initiative. The Initiative aims to produce quality threedimensional moving images and reconstruction images, using state-of-the-art digital visual and sound processing ...
1 min read
Thursday, 14 October 2004
A new book Les 200 plus beaux sites du monde (The 200 most beautiful sites in
the World), published by Hachette-Tourism to commemorate 10 years of the Voir collection,
was launched in Paris at UNESCO Headquarters on 11 October 2004.
Among the 200 sites selected by the editors, 125 are inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage
List. Published in large format, two full pages of the book ...
1 min read
Thursday, 14 October 2004
The World Heritage Centre deeply regrets to announce the passing away, in Paris on Monday 27 September, of Michel Batisse (1923-2004), UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Science from 1972 to1984 and one of the founding fathers of the 1972 World Heritage Convention.
He played a critical role in the preparation and negotiation of this Convention, by guaranteeing the rightful place of ...
1 min read
Monday, 11 October 2004
Every Sunday, listeners of the French radio station France Info can learn more about UNESCO's World Heritage sites, by listening to a new chronicle entitled “Treasures of Humanity” .
Olivier Emond, a 31 years old journalist and History graduate, explains in short chronicles the history of World Heritage sites selected among the 788 that are inscribed on the World Heritage List today. The ...
1 min read
Thursday, 7 October 2004
B orn after 31 December 1975 you will be under 30 years of age in 2005.
You are a native of a Mediterranean country.
You wish to develop a project furthering the knowledge and understanding of Mediterranean cultures.
Every year the Marc de Montalembert Foundation offers a grant of 7000 euro to enable the implementation of such projects.
To apply for the 2005 Marc de Montalembert ...
1 min read