UNESCO World Heritage Committee session

News Excerpt:

The 46th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which is being hosted by India from July 21-31, will be held at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.

About UNESCO World Heritage Committee session:

  • The event will be attended by over 2,500 delegates from State Parties, advisory bodies, senior diplomats, heritage experts, scholars, and researchers from 195 countries
    • State Parties are countries which have adhered to the World Heritage Convention.
  • The World Heritage Committee comprises representatives from 21 States Parties to the World Heritage Convention (1972) elected by the General Assembly of UNESCO.
  •  The 45th session of the committee was held at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
  • The event, which is being organized by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), is likely to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister on July 21.
  • The current members of the committee, after elections in the 24th General Assembly of UNESCO in November 2023, are Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, India, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Türkiye, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Zambia.
  • The committee is responsible for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention. 
    • It allocates financial assistance from the World Heritage Fund and has the final say on whether a site is inscribed on the World Heritage List.
  • It was established under the convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO at its 17th session on 16 November 1972. 
    • The Rules of Procedure were last revised by the World Heritage Committee at its 39th session (Bonn, 2015).
  • There are 42 UNESCO world heritage sites in India. 
    • Santiniketan, established by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, became the 41st site to be declared a world heritage site in India in September 2023.

World Heritage Fund

  • The Fund for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Outstanding Universal Value, called "the World Heritage Fund", was established in 1977 under Article 15 of the World Heritage Convention.
  • The World Heritage Committee allocates most of the budget of the World Heritage Fund for the services of the Advisory Bodies on one hand, and for International Assistance on the other hand.
  • There are also budget lines, among others, for Periodic Reporting, Reactive monitoring, activities in relation to sites inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger, the World Heritage Education Programme, the Upstream process, the World Heritage Review.

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