The twelfth session of the General Assembly of States Parties to the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was held in Paris, at UNESCO Headquarters on 28 and 29 October 1999 during the thirtieth session of the General Conference.
One hundred and thirty-eight States Parties to the Convention were represented at this meeting.
The representatives of the three advisory bodies to the World Heritage Convention (ICCROM, ICOMOS, IUCN) also participated in the twelfth General Assembly of States Parties.
In accordance with the Rules of Procedure of ...
5. In his opening address, the representative of the Director-General, Mr Crespo-Toral, Assistant Director-General for Culture, spoke of the incontestable success of the Convention which has been ratified by 157 States, and the World Heritage List which now includes 582 cultural and natural properties. He stressed the fact that the List does not yet include all the categories of properties, notably living traditions and modes of land-use – which determine the material and spiritual life of human groups and their relationships with their environment. He also evoked the categories of ...
9. The General Assembly elected by acclamation H.E. Mr L.J. Hanrath (The Netherlands) as President of the General Assembly, the representatives of Grenada, India and Yemen as Vice Presidents, and Mr I. Monsi (Benin) as Rapporteur. 10. In his speech, the President of the General Assembly promised that he will do his very best to make the twelfth General Assembly a success which would be paramount to the prestige of the Convention. He recalled that it is the most visible activity of UNESCO. He referred to the problems which could jeopardise its success mainly: the growing number of ...
The agenda was adopted without amendments.
14. The President welcomed Israel as the 158th State Party. He asked if the Committee, composed of only 21 members, could continue to orient the implementation of the Convention in the name of the growing number of States Parties. He expressed his personal opinion that the time had come to study the possibility of increasing the number of representatives of States Parties within the Committee.
15. He referred to the fundamental issue of the representativity of the List and to the ongoing discussions (since 1992) to improve the existing imbalances in the framework of the Global Strategy. ...
24. The representative of the Bureau of the Comptroller presented Document WHC-99/CONF.206/3a concerning the statement of accounts of the World Heritage Fund for the financial period 1996-1997, certified by the Auditor General, as well as the accounts of the Fund for the year 1998 approved by the Comptroller, and the tables included in this document. The General Assembly approved the accounts for 1996-1997 and took note of the 1998 accounts.
The Delegate of Thailand asked for an explication on the amount of the expenditure mentioned in Table 1.1 entitled “Table of funds engaged and ...
25. The representative of the Bureau of the Comptroller presented document WHC-99/CONF.206/3b.rev giving the state of mandatory and voluntary contributions to the World Heritage Fund as at 22 October 1999. He then informed the General Assembly of all the other voluntary contributions and funds in trust received in 1999 by the World Heritage Centre. The Deputy Director of the Centre then announced the list of the other contributions expected, including the financing of the posts in the framework of the programme of associate experts.
26. The representative of the Bureau of the ...
12 GA 29
Determination of an amount of the contributions to the World Heritage Fund in accordance with the provisions of Article 16 of the Convention
29. In accordance with item 7 of the agenda, the General Assembly unanimously decided that the amount of mandatory contributions to the World Heritage Fund for the period 2000-2001 would be maintained at 1 percent of contributions made by States Parties of the Regular Programme of UNESCO, according to article 16, paragraph 1 of the Convention, as had been decided by previous General Assemblies.
30. Before introducing this point, the President referred to the notes sent to UNESCO delegations by France and Italy and wished to give the floor to the heads of the delegations of these countries so they could present their position. The Delegate of Lebanon, referring to Article 11 of the Rules of Procedure, raised a point of procedure relating to Resolutions and Amendments. The President then tabled working document WHC-99/CONF.206/5.
31. He recalled that at its twenty-second session, the World Heritage Committee inscribed this item on the provisional agenda of the twenty-third ...
49. Under item 9 of the agenda, the General Assembly was called upon to elect seven members of the World Heritage Committee, to replace the following seven members whose mandate would expire at the end of the thirtieth session of the General Conference: Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Niger, United States of America. The list of candidates was read out to the General Assembly: Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Cameroon, China, Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Mongolia, Portugal, Slovakia, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda, United Kingdom, ...
54. The Director of the Centre tabled document WHC-99/CONF.206/INF.7, and referred to the decision of the twenty-third session of the Bureau to submit the following draft resolution concerning the Centre’s needs and resources to the twelfth General Assembly for it to take note.
55. The General Assembly took note of the draft resolution addressed to the Director-General.
«The Bureau of the World Heritage Committee
Noting that the true nature of the functioning of the Convention concerning the protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage implies a regular growth in the annual ...
56. The President thanked the Secretariat, the tellers and the interpreters for their efficient work. He noted that the States had adopted a resolution of historical importance concerning the ways and means to ensure a representative World Heritage List, the implementation of which would be determinant for the future of the Convention. He requested the States Parties to take into account at a national level the commitments they had just made. He then declared that this twelfth General Assembly had been a success, and closed the session.