The World Heritage Committee comprises of representatives from the 21 States Parties to the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972) elected by the General Assembly of States Parties to the Convention.
The WHC meets in ordinary session once a year and the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee will be held in Kraków, Poland, from 2 to 12 July 2017.
The Members
The current composition of the Committee includes the following State Parties: Angola, Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, Croatia, Cuba, Finland, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Tunisia, Turkey, United Republic of Tanzania, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe.
The Functions
The essential functions of the Committee are:
- to establish, on the basis of nominations submitted by States Parties, and the evaluations provided by the Advisory Bodies, the World Heritage List including cultural and natural sites of Outstanding Universal Value which are to be protected under the Convention;
- to monitor the state of conservation of sites listed on the World Heritage List, in liaison with States Parties; to decide which properties included in the World Heritage List are to be added to or removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger; decide whether a property may be deleted from the World Heritage List;
- to examine requests for International Assistance financed by the World Heritage Fund.
Bureau of the World Heritage Committee
The Bureau consists of seven States Parties elected annually by the Committee: a Chairperson, five Vice-Chairpersons, and a Rapporteur. The Bureau of the Committee coordinates the work of the Committee and fixes the dates, hours and order of business of meetings. The election of the new Bureau will take place at the end of the next session of the World Heritage Committee.
Chairperson: Mr Jacek Purchla (Poland)
Rapporteur: Mr Muhammad Juma (United Republic of Tanzania)
Vice-Chairpersons: Angola, Kuwait, Peru, Portugal, Republic of Korea
Further Information
Website of the World Heritage Centre.