News

In addition to its generous annual contributions under the Programme Cooperation Agreement (2014-2017), the Government of Sweden decided in November 2017 to provide additional financial support to UNESCO in the amount of  SEK 3,200,000  (around USD 400,000) to strengthen the protection of heritage, as well as to promote independent, free and pluralistic media. The contribution will ...

The ‘Delhi Declaration on Heritage and Democracy’ was adopted at the closing session of the ICOMOS 19th General Assembly in New Delhi, India, on 15th December 2017, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium-Auditorium in New Delhi, India. The Delhi Declaration emphasized the understanding that people's perspective is central to heritage, and the General Assembly declared that ethical principles have to ...

The first meeting of the World Heritage Policy Compendium Working Group took place at UNESCO Headquarters from 6 to 7 December 2017. The Policy Compendium initiative, which will see the development of a consolidated source of World Heritage policies for use by the World Heritage Committee, States Parties and other stakeholders, is being implemented through financial support received from the ...

An inter-regional workshop entitled “World Heritage and Sustainable Development: the Role of Local Communities” was organized at the National Museum in Karachi, Pakistan (23-24 November 2017) by the World Heritage Centre in close co-operation with the UNESCO office in Islamabad and the Department of Archaeology of the Government of Sindh Province, Pakistan. The Workshop, opened by the ...

Culture, in all of its wondrous expressions, inspires more than 1.2 billion tourists to pack a bag and cross international borders each year.  It is an important means to promote inter-cultural dialogue, create employment opportunities, curb rural migration, and nurture a sense of pride among host communities. Yet unmanaged, it can also harm the very heritage cultural tourism relies ...

The triennial meeting of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), taking place in New Delhi, India from 11-15 December 2017, began with the Scientific Council Meeting on 11 December in the India International Centre, New Delhi. The Opening Ceremony of the ICOMOS General Assembly was held on 12 December 2017 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium-Auditorium in New Delhi. The ...

International Mountain Day, designated by the United Nations General Assembly in 2003 and celebrated on 11 December, highlights the importance of mountains to life on Earth. The theme for 2017, “Mountains under Pressure: climate, hunger, migration”, draws our attention to some of the most critical challenges that mountains and people living in mountain areas are currently facing. It also ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is participating in the Annual Meeting of the International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes in New Delhi, India, on 7–8 December 2017, ahead of the 19th ICOMOS General Assembly (11–15 December 2017). Organized by the International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes ICOMOS-IFLA (ISCCL) and ICOMOS India, this two-day ISCCL Annual Meeting ...

The first joint STAB/ICOMOS Advisory Mission to a World Heritage property was carried out within the framework of the World Heritage Convention and the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. The World Heritage property "Ancient City of Nessebar" (Bulgaria) hosted an Advisory Mission invited by the Bulgarian authorities and carried out jointly by experts of the ...

Five years ago, on 5 December 2012, the World Heritage State of Conservation Information System was publicly launched. This database offers a trove of reliable information on the state of conservation of natural and cultural World Heritage properties since 1979 and the threats they have faced in the past, or are currently facing. The State of Conservation Information System currently ...

On 5 December 2017, the World Heritage Centre, Europe and North-America Unit organized a meeting on Heritage and Environmental Impact Assessment (HIA/EIA) at UNESCO Headquarters, with the support of the French Ministry of Ecology. It was a follow up to Decision 39 COM 7.11 on HIA and EIAs adopted by the World Heritage Committee at its 39th session (Bonn, 2015) and to the side events organized ...

At the request of the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, meeting at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris from 29 to 30 November 2017, granted “enhanced protection” status to Angkor, a cultural World Heritage site.   Enhanced protection is a mechanism established by the 1999 Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention for the ...

Mechtild Rössler, Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, welcomes the initiative by the Government of Mexico to create a vast ocean reserve spanning 150,000 sq km around the Revillagigedo islands, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2016. The establishment of the reserve follows the request of the World Heritage Committee when inscribing the Archipiélago de Revillagigedo on ...

Just a month after the submission of South Sudan’s first ever Tentative List of potential UNESCO World Heritage sites, UNESCO hosted a workshop on 23 November 2017 in Juba in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism, and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in order to guide the State Party in the preparation of a ...

22nd November – 24th NovemberOrganized by the State Nature Conservancy, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Slovak Commission for UNESCO and Carpathian Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, this three day workshop focused on the development of sustainable tourism for the UNESCO World Heritage Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the ...

On 16 November 2017, we celebrate the 45th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention, one of the most powerful international tools for heritage preservation and one of UNESCO's most successful programmes. Almost universally adopted, with 193 signatory countries, the Convention is unique in combining the protection of cultural and natural heritage in one legal instrument. Since its adoption ...

The Government of Bahrain, newly elected member of the World Heritage Committee, will host the 42nd session of the World Heritage Committee from 24 June to 4 July 2018, in Manama, Bahrain. The Chair of the Committee, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, is an international lawyer who served as Bahrain’s first female ambassador when she became Ambassador to France (1999 to 2004) and was the third ...

On 6 November 2017, The Church of England National Investing Bodies announced the launch of its new policy on investing in extractive industries: “Extractive Industries: Ethical Investment Policy”. The policy acknowledges the positive contribution that mining can make to development but also highlights the ethical importance of protected areas such as World Heritage sites and the threats that ...

The 21st General Assembly of the States Parties to the World Heritage Convention is meeting on 14 and15 November 2017 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, convening the 193 States Parties to the World Heritage Convention, under the chairmanship of H.E. Mr Adrian Cioroianu, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Romania to UNESCO. During the session, the General Assembly elected twelve new ...