5. In his opening address, the representative of the Director-General, Mr Mounir Bouchenaki, Assistant Director-General for Culture, spoke of the incontestable success of the World Heritage Convention. He welcomed the Kingdom of Bhutan, Samoa and Eritrea as new signatories to the Convention. The Convention would have 167 States Parties by the end of 2001. He stated that this achievement of near universality proved that the world attached special importance to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage. 6. Mr Bouchenaki advised the General Assembly that Mr Peter King (Australia) had ...
14. The General Assembly elected by acclamation H.E Ambassador Samuel Fernandéz Illanes (Chile) as Chairperson of the General Assembly.
15. The Chairperson thanked the General Assembly for his election and commented on the tremendous importance of the World Heritage Convention.
16. The Delegate of Algeria congratulated the Chairperson on his election and welcomed the three new States Parties to the Convention. He then asked that the representative of Palestine be accepted as an observer to the 13th General Assembly. The Delegates of Cuba, the Republic of Dominica, Egypt, the Republic of ...
19. The Delegate of France questioned the procedures used to elect the Chairperson of the General Assembly whereby there was no consultation prior to the session. He proposed that this issue and Rule 3 of the Rules of Procedure be discussed under Item 11: Other business. He also suggested that candidates for Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and Rapporteur could be called for in advance and that all States Parties be informed.
20. The Delegate of the United States of America agreed with the proposal made by the Delegate of France and also commented that in future the General Assembly needed ...
24. The Chairperson invited the General Assembly to choose three Vice-Chairpersons and a Rapporteur. Mr Boubaker Ben Fraj, Director General of the National Institute for Heritage of Tunisia and Ms Sandra Kalniete, Ambassador of Latvia to UNESCO were appointed as Vice-Chairpersons by acclamation. A third Vice-Chairperson was not appointed. Mrs Deanna Ongpin-Recto (Philippines) was appointed as Rapporteur by acclamation.
25. The Chairperson of the General Assembly referred to document 31C/REP.15 Report by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage on its Activities (2000-2001). He explained that the World Heritage Committee, at its sixteenth session held in December 1992 in Santa Fe, United States of America, recommended that the report which the Committee addressed to the General Conference also be presented to the General Assembly of States Parties.
26. Dr Christina Cameron (Canada), Chairperson of the World Heritage Committee presented the report of ...
13 GA 44-47
Examination of the statement of accounts of the World Heritage Fund, including the status of the States Parties' contributions
44. In conformity with the Financial Rules of the World Heritage Fund, the representative of the Comptroller presented for examination by the General Assembly, document WHC-2001/CONF.206/3a which contained:
the accounts of the World Heritage Fund for the financial period 1998-1999, certified by the auditors within the framework of the UNESCO General Audit; and
the Fund accounts for the year 2000 approved by the Comptroller and which will be part of the external audit for the financial period 2000-2001.
45. He explained each one of the financial statements and tables contained in ...
48. The representative of the Bureau of the Comptroller presented the documents WHC-2001/CONF.206/3b and WHC-2001/CONF.206/3b.Add, containing the compulsory and voluntary contributions to the World Heritage Fund as at 30 September and revised as at 22 October 2001. He indicated that the state of compulsory and voluntary contributions would be updated for the next session of the Committee in Helsinki in December 2001.
49. The Delegate of Thailand referred to the last page of document WHC-2001/CONF.206/3b, State of contributions as at 31 August 2001, and requested clarification regarding ...
13 GA 52
Determination of the amount of the contributions to the World Heritage Fund in accordance with the provisions of Article 16 of the World Heritage Convention
52. The Chairperson presented the document WHC-2001/CONF.206/4 to the General Assembly for a decision as to whether the level of compulsory contributions to the World Heritage Fund should be maintained at 1% of the amount of contributions of States Parties to the Regular Budget of UNESCO, in accordance with Article 16, paragraph 1 of the Convention, inline with the decision of previous General Assemblies. The General Assembly took note of the document and unanimously approved this proposal.
13 GA 53-73
Representivity of the World Heritage List (follow-up to the Resolution adopted by the twelfth General Assembly of States Parties)
53. The Chairperson referred to document WHC-2001/CONF.206/5 and requested the General Assembly to take note of the decision of the World Heritage Committee at its twenty-fourth session in Cairns 2000.
54. The Director of the World Heritage Centre recalled that a Resolution had been adopted by the 12th General Assembly concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage. Furthermore, he acknowledged the work of the Working Group that was chaired by H.E. Ambassador Yai (Benin) in 2000 whose mandate was to make recommendations, based on the Resolution, towards improving ...