Celebrating one year of HUL Call for Action

In the last 12 months, 145 cities, institutions and individuals have signed up to the HUL Call for Action to raise awareness about the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) and to accelerate inclusive urban and heritage management. Responses came from 59 countries from all regions of the world. They included stakeholders from academia, cultural institutions, the public and private sectors, civil society and NGOs. The number and diversity of respondents highlights the importance of this normative instrument for cities all around the world.
Many thanks to all who joined this important initiative! If you have not yet signed up, you can do so here.

Follow up actions

The HUL Call for Action was launched in 2021, as part of the celebrations of the 10th Anniversary of the HUL Recommendation. Following up on the HUL Call for Action, a number of support resources have been developed:  

• Follow-up thematic events were organised by cities, in collaboration with the World Heritage Cities Programme: 
  • "Sustainable Development Practices for Urban Heritage" 
  • “Management of World Heritage Cities”  
  • “Historic Cities, Climate Change, Water, and Energy” 
• The platform “World Heritage Canopy - Heritage Solutions for Sustainable Futures” now showcases more than 50 cases of innovative practice that can serve as a source of inspiration to other heritage places.  
• Learning materials, including thematic video lectures, reports and publications, are available on the websites of the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape and the World Heritage Cities Programme.
• In summer 2022, the HUL Café will bring together the HUL network over a series of informal peer-to-peer sessions. 

Analysis of the responses 

To implement the HUL Recommendation, respondents to the Call for Action were asked to commit to at least one of three actions proposed.  

1. Sensitize local and national actors about the HUL approach and encourage its implementation. 
2. Promote a local urban consultation process to empower stakeholders including NGOs, public and private stakeholders to support a HUL-driven urban development. 
3. Develop local heritage management actions based on the HUL approach. 

A preliminary analysis of the responses shows that Action 1 was the most popular amongst respondents (107 pledges, 74%), with Action 2 and 3 receiving similar rates of support (88 and 87 pledges, respectively, approximately 60%). According to the region of the respondents, 9 of them come from the Africa region, 50 from the Asia and the Pacific, 14 from Arab States, 30 from Europe and North America, and 35 from Latin America and the Caribbean.