World Heritage Committee

Sessions

The World Heritage Committee meets once a year for an ordinary session to discuss the management of existing World Heritage Sites, and accept nominations by countries. Extraordinary meetings can be convened at the request of two-thirds of the state members. Meetings are held within the territory of state members of the World Heritage Committee at their invitation. Rotation between regions and cultures is a consideration for selection and the location for the next session is chosen by the committee at the end of each session.

Bureau

At the end of each ordinary session, the committee elects a chairperson, five vice-chairpersons and a Rapporteur from those members whose term will continue through the next session. These are known as the Bureau, and their representatives are responsible for coordinating the work of the World Heritage Committee, including fixing dates, hours and the order of business meetings.

Voting

Each state member of the World Heritage Committee has one vote. Decisions require a simple majority with abstentions counted as not voting. Votes are delivered by a show of hands unless a secret ballot is requested by either the chairperson or two or more states members.

Members

Criticism

Increasing politicization of World Heritage Committee decisions to the detriment of conservation aims has been alleged, particularly with regard to new nominations for the World Heritage List, but also with the consideration of sites for the List of World Heritage in Danger. In 2010, states parties including Hungary, Switzerland and Zimbabwe submitted an official protest against such politicization.

An external audit requested by the World Heritage Committee for its Global Strategy of the World Heritage List concluded in 2011 that political considerations were indeed influencing decisions. It observed that the composition of committee representatives had shifted from experts to diplomats in spite of World Heritage Convention Article 9 and found that opinions from advisory bodies often diverged from World Heritage Committee decisions.

In 2016, Israel recalled its UNESCO ambassador after the World Heritage Committee adopted a resolution in a secret ballot that referred to one of Jerusalem's holiest sites, the Temple Mount, only as a "Muslim holy site of worship", not mentioning that Jews and Christians venerate the site.

The committee has also been criticized with alleged racism, colorism, and geographic bias for favoring the inscription of sites in Western and industrialized countries over sites belonging to so-called "third-world" countries. A large proportion of the world heritage sites are located in Europe, Eastern Asia, and North America, where populations notably have lighter skin.

References

References

1. UNESCO. "The World Heritage Committee".
2. According to the UNESCO World Heritage [[website]], [https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/ States Parties] {{Webarchive. link. (26 May 2020 are countries that signed and ratified [https://whc.unesco.org/en/convention/ The World Heritage Convention] {{Webarchive). link. (27 August 2016 . As of March 2013, there were a total of 170 State Parties.)
3. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. "Advisory Bodies".
4. Office of the External Auditor for the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization (2011) [https://whc.unesco.org/archive/2011/whc11-35com-INF9Ae.pdf Independent Evaluation by the UNESCO External Auditor, Volume 1: Implementation of the Global Strategy for the Credible, Balanced and Representative World Heritage List] {{Webarchive. link. (12 May 2021 . UNESCO Headquarters, Paris.)
5. UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the World Natural and Cultural Heritage (2015) Rules of Procedure. World Heritage Centre, Paris. Download available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/committee/ {{Webarchive. link. (17 May 2022 (27 June 2019))
6. "Sessions". UNESCO World Heritage Site.
7. UNESCO. (16 July 2021). "Extended 44th World Heritage Committee session opens in Fuzhou, China".
8. (22 April 2022). "UNESCO indefinitely postpones planned world heritage meeting in Russia". [[The Art Newspaper]].
9. (2023-01-24). "Saudi Arabia to host UNESCO's World Heritage Committee meetings in September".
10. (2024). "46th session of the World Heritage Committee".
11. Meskell, Lynn. (Winter 2014). "States of Conservation: Protection, Politics, and Pacting within UNESCO's World Heritage Committee". Anthropological Quarterly.
12. (26 August 2010). "UNESCO's world heritage sites: A danger list in danger".
13. (2017-10-12). "U.S. to Withdraw From UNESCO. Here's What That Means". National Geographic.
14. Tress, Luke. (2016-10-26). "UNESCO adopts another resolution ignoring Jewish link to Temple Mount". The Times of Israel.
15. Eliot, et al (2012). World heritage: Constructing a universal cultural order. Poetics Journal.
16. Djurberg, et al (2018). Reforming UNESCO's World Heritage. The Globalist.
17. Keough (2011). Heritage in Peril: A Critique of UNESCO's World Heritage Program. Global Studies Law Review.
18. Steiner, et al (2011). Imbalance of World Heritage List: "Did the UNESCO Strategy Work?". University of Zurich.