World Heritage Committee

The World Heritage Committee is the group which decides on the places to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It makes sure that the agreements in World Heritage Convention are followed. It also decides how the money in the World Heritage Fund is spent. The committee has 21 members who are elected from the 188 countries that have agreed to the World Heritage Convention.

According to the World Heritage Convention, committee members are elected for six years, however many of the representatives choose to be on the committee for only four years. This gives more countries a chance to take part. At the 15th General Assembly (2005) all the committee members agreed to serve for only four years.

Session
The World Heritage Committee meets many times a year to discuss the management of existing World Heritage Sites, and to look at possible new sites. A special meeting, known as the World Heritage Committee Session, takes place each year where sites are added (inscribed) to the World Heritage List.

The annual session takes place in cities all over the world. With the exception of meetings held in Paris, where the UNESCO headquarter office is located, only countries who are members of the World Heritage Committee have the right to hold a Session. The cities are decided by the Committee.

SessionYearDateHost cityState party 1 1977 27 June–1 July Paris  2 1978 5 September–8 September Washington, D.C.  3 1979 22 October–26 October Cairo & Luxor  4 1980 1 September–5 September Paris  5 1981 26 October–30 October Sydney  6 1982 13 December–17 December Paris  7 1983 5 December–9 December Florence  8 1984 29 October–2 November Buenos Aires  9 1985 2 December–6 December Paris  10 1986 24 November–28 November Paris  11 1987 7 December–11 December Paris  12 1988 5 December–9 December Brasília  13 1989 11 December–15 December Paris  14 1990 7 December–12 December Banff  15 1991 9 December–13 December Carthage  16 1992 7 December–14 December Santa Fe  17 1993 6 December–11 December Cartagena  18 1994 12 December–17 December Phuket  19 1995 4 December–9 December Berlin  20 1996 2 December–7 December Mérida  21 1997 1 December–6 December Naples  22 1998 30 November–5 December Kyoto  23 1999 29 November–4 December Marrakech  24 2000 27 November–2 December Cairns  25 2001 11 December–16 December Helsinki  26 2002 24 June–29 June Budapest  27 2003 30 June–5 July Paris  28 2004 28 June–7 July Suzhou  29 2005 10 July–17 July Durban  30 2006 8 July–16 July Vilnius  31 2007 23 June–1 July Christchurch  32 2008 2 July-10 July Quebec City  33 2009 22 June-30 June Seville  34 2010 25 July-3 August Brasília  35 2011 19 June-29 June Paris  36 2012 25 June-5 July Saint Petersburg 

References

Other websites

 UNESCO World Heritage portal — Official website 
 The World Heritage List — Official searchable list of all Inscribed Properties

UNESCO Conventions
Category:International organizations
Category:Conservation