All relevant documentation is available at the following web address : whc.unesco.org/en/documents (select the year, the session, the document reference or the title of the document ....)
According to the Convention, a Committee member's mandate is for 6 years.
The General Assembly (Resolution 13 GA 9, paragraph 6) invites the States Parties to the World Heritage Conventionto voluntarily reduce their term of office from six to four years.
There are 21 Committee members represented by 21 States Parties to the World Heritage Convention.
Please refer to Rule 14 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly: "Election of the members of the World Heritage Committee"
Following the 1st Extraordinary Session (UNESCO, 2014), the General Assembly amended its Rules of Procedures in order to achieve the goal of an equitable geographical and cultural representation on the World Heritage Committee, through the allocation of seats by region (defined with reference to UNESCO’s electoral groups) on the World Heritage Committee.
For more details please refer to Article 14 of the Rules of Procedures.
The Rules of Procedure adopted by the General Assembly in November 2014 state that “at each election, due consideration shall be given to the election of at least one State Party which has never served as a Member of the World Heritage Committee" (Rule 14.1d).
No, there is no provision.
As per Rule 13.1 of the Rules of procedure of the General Assembly, candidatures should be sent to the Secretariat at least six weeks prior to the opening of the General Assembly.
As per Rule 13.4, this list of candidatures shall be finalised 48 hours before the opening of the General Assembly. No other candidatures nor payments of compulsory and voluntary contributions to the World Heritage Fund (for the purpose of presenting a candidature to the Committee) will be accepted in the 48-hour period prior to the opening of the General Assembly.
Candidatures should be sent to the following address:
The Director
UNESCO World Heritage Centre
7 place de Fontenoy
75352 Paris 07 SP, France
As per article 16.5 of the Convention:
"Any State Party to the Convention which is in arrears with the payment of its compulsory or voluntary contribution for the current year and the calendar year immediately preceding it shall not be eligible as a Member of the World Heritage Committee, although this provision shall not apply to the first election."
With regard to the number of candidatures presented by an electoral group, it is worth recalling Resolution 1 EXT.GA 3 on the revision of the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly (in 2014), by which the General Assembly of States Parties to the Convention "reiterate[d] its strong request to States Parties and electoral groups to provide a sufficient number of candidates for each seat and each election to ensure a genuine choice at each election.”
Nevertheless, in the event that an electoral group presents fewer candidates than seats allocated to that group, the General Assembly should be informed at the beginning of the session, and before the elections begin, so that the General Assembly can take a decision on the seat(s) that will remain vacant: allocation within the open seats, allocation to another electoral group, etc. Indeed, Rule 14.1.e) of the Rules of Procedure stipulates that "[i]n case the above formula [note: formula describing the distribution of seats within electoral groups] cannot be practically applied, an exceptional arrangement may be made to accommodate such special circumstances." In any event, the remaining vacant seat(s) shall be filled at the same session and not at subsequent elections, the Committee being composed of 21 members.
Elections to replace outgoing Committee members take place during the General Assembly of States Parties, meeting every two years during the General Conference of UNESCO (Article 8.3 of the Convention).
For more information on the forthcoming elections see General Assembly.