News

It is with deep sorrow that we learned of the passing of Dr Henry Forrester Cleere, in London on 23 August 2018. The UNESCO World Heritage Centre staff would like to express our heartfelt condolences to Henry’s family. Dr Henry Cleere was born in London on 2 August 1926. After completing a Masters degree in English, Henry Cleere worked for over 20 years in the iron and steel industry before ...

On 30 and 31 August 2018, the 70th anniversary of IUCN was celebrated at Fontainebleau, France with the theme “The Future of Landscapes: A New Relationship for People and Nature”. It is at the Chateau de Fontainebleau, a World Heritage site, that in 1948 the founding assembly convened at the invitation of UNESCO to create the International Union for the Protection of Nature (IUPN), later to ...

Upon the conclusion of the second Governing Board meeting of the Lucio Costa Centre (CLC), Regional Training Centre for World Heritage Management (Category II Centre under the auspices of UNESCO), located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the member countries of the CLC adopted the Work Plan 2018-2020 as a new agenda of activities and actions in the field of World Heritage. The meeting involved the ...

Over the last several months, the World Heritage Centre has been receiving numerous messages from citizens from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as well as from other countries, expressing their concern regarding the ‘Proposed Scheme’ for the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down project, located within the boundaries of the World Heritage site “Stonehenge, Avebury and ...

On the night of 22 to 23 August 1791, in the western part of the island of Saint-Domingue, then French colony of the West Indies, an uprising of slaves took place, which would mark a turning point in the tragic history of the slave trade. The war that ensued culminated in 1804 in the independence of that part of the island, which took the name of Haiti, and led to the recognition of the equal ...

This year, International Youth Day focuses on the theme: "Safe spaces for youth". Youth is a decisive phase in personal development. It is the age when people venture into the unknown, seeking new horizons; it is a time of encounters, often memorable ones; it is a time of first commitments. However, youth is also a vulnerable age, when negative experiences can quickly lead to withdrawal, ...

Indigenous peoples are among the most vulnerable populations in the world. This International Day is an opportunity to raise public awareness of their precarious situation, particularly in relation to migration, which is the Day's theme in 2018. Migration influences the way of life of many indigenous peoples, whether these be nomadic pastoral societies who follow the transhumance calendar, ...

The World Heritage Beech Forests Conference was held in Vienna, Austria on 23 July 2018. Eighty-four participants from 15 States Parties came to discuss the challenges and future of the UNESCO World Heritage “Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe”. The conference supported the upstream process and enabled direct communication with UNESCO and IUCN ...

The following is a message from United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivered on 6 August 2018, at the memorial ceremony in Hiroshima on the 73rd anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome) was the only structure left standing in the area where the first atomic bomb exploded on 6 August 1945. It was inscribed on the World Heritage ...

On 1 August 2018, the World Heritage Centre received a petition signed by more than 2,400 citizens who expressed their concerns about deforestation at Lake Baikal World Heritage site (Russian Federation). The competent authorities of the State Party as well as the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Body IUCN are informed of the concerns raised by the campaign. The state of conservation ...

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay has issued the statement below following news of the death of French architect and heritage conservation expert Pierre-André Lablaude: “Pierre-André Lablaude leaves behind him an immense body of work, including a remarkable contribution to the safeguarding and restoration of UNESCO's World Heritage, for which I wish to express our Organization’s ...

In the part years, interest in rural areas, small settlements, and the fine-tuned interaction between humankind and its natural environment, has exponentially grown in China and all around the world.The critical role played by villages, small towns, and their vast surrounding environment is gaining global acknowledgment as a complementary counterpart to growing cities. However, today these ...

Over the last several weeks, the World Heritage Centre has received numerous messages from citizens expressing their concerns regarding a car park project within the World Heritage property “Venetian Works of Defence between the 16th and 17th Centuries: Stato da Terra – Western Stato da Mar”, and the adverse impact it may have on the serial property. The concerned area is located within the ...

The World Heritage Centre has launched an Online Consultation with key World Heritage stakeholders on the Reactive Monitoring process. The consultation, which is taking place until 14 September 2018, will gather feedback and comments from key World Heritage stakeholders on this crucial process of the World Heritage Convention. This inclusive online consultation invites States Parties to ...

The 2018 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development with the theme "Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies" was held at the UN New York from 9 to 18 July 2018. During the Forum, the Secretariats of the biodiversity-related conventions met at an event called the The Living Planet – the foundation of sustainable development: Contribution of the ...

A side event dedicated to the ‘Making of’ the draft Policy Compendium was held during the 42nd session of the World Heritage Committee in Manama, Bahrain (24 June – 4 July 2018). During the event, a panel composed of experts from the Policy Compendium Working Group and representatives of the World Heritage Centre presented their work to date on the draft Policy Compendium. The presentation ...

The Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage (ARC-WH) and ICOMOS International in collaboration with ICCROM and IUCN, are organizing a Capacity Building programme for World Heritage Professionals in the Arab Region. This programme aims to build a strong network of experts from the Arab Region that will assist the Arab States, the Advisory Bodies, and all World Heritage stakeholders in the ...

The 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan from 30 June to 10 July 2019, further to the kind invitation of the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On 3 July 2018, during its 42nd session in Manama, Bahrain, the Committee elected H.E. Mr. Abulfaz Garayev, Azerbaijani Minister of Culture as the new Chair of the Committee, with Brazil, Burkina Faso, ...

The managers of the French properties inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List and their institutional partners met on 30, 31 May and 1 June last in the Mining Basin for their 16th Annual Meeting, following an invitation by the Mining Basin Mission. Over 100 people were present to attend the General Assembly of the association, to participate in the afternoon debate devoted to the various ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre was saddened to learn of the death of Dr Janice Lindsay, Principal Director, Culture and Creative Industries Policy Division in the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport (MCGES) in Jamaica. Dr Lindsay was a Cultural Heritage Development Specialist focusing on the economic development of tangible and intangible heritage assets. She was also ...