Decision 40 COM 11

Revision of the Operational Guidelines

1. Having examined Documents WHC/16/40.COM/11 and WHC/16/40.COM/13A,
2. Recalling Decision 39 COM 11, adopted at its 39th session (Bonn, 2015),
3. Taking into account the recommendation of the ad-hoc Working Group regarding Paragraph 61 as presented in the Document WHC/16/40.COM/13A,
4. Also taking into account the deliberations of the Consultative Body established at the beginning of the session under Rule 20 of the Rules of Procedure,
5. Acknowledges the heavy budget constraints of the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies, the need for an effective management of the increasing size of the World Heritage List and the call for a more balanced World Heritage List;
6. Decides that the impact of the proposed amendments will be evaluated at the 46th session of the Committee in 2022;
7. Further decides to include in the draft Agenda of the 44th session of the Committee in 2020 an item in view to prepare the criteria to be used to assess the impact of this decision;
8. Adopts the proposed revision of Paragraph 61 of the Operational Guidelines, as presented in Annex of the Document WHC/16/40.COM/13A and as amended by the Consultative Body mentioned in Paragraph 4 above:
   

   Paragraph 61 of the Operational Guidelines

   61.  The Committee has decided to apply the following mechanism:
   
   1. examine up to two one complete nominations per State Party, provided that at least one of such nominations concerns a natural property or a cultural landscape and,
   2. set at 45 35 the annual limit on the number of nominations it will review, inclusive of nominations deferred and referred by previous sessions of the Committee, extensions (except minor modifications of limits of the property), transboundary and serial nominations,
   3. the following order of priorities will be applied in case the overall annual limit of 45 35 nominations is exceeded:
      1. nominations of properties submitted by States Parties with no properties inscribed on the List
      2. nominations of properties submitted by States Parties having up to 3 properties inscribed on the List,
      3. resubmitted referred nominations that were not transmitted to the relevant Advisory Bodies for evaluation further to the application of paragraph 61.b)[1],
      4. nominations of properties that have been previously excluded due to the annual limit of 45 35 nominations and the application of these priorities,
      5. nominations of properties for natural heritage,
      6. nominations of properties for mixed heritage,
      7. nominations of transboundary/transnational properties,
      8. nominations from States Parties in Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean,
      9. nominations of properties submitted by States Parties having ratified the World Heritage Convention during the last ten twenty years,
      10.  nominations of properties submitted by States Parties that have not submitted nominations for ten five years or more,
      11. nominations of States Parties, former Members of the Committee, who accepted on a voluntary basis not to have a nomination reviewed by the Committee during their mandate. This priority will be applied for 4 years after the end of their mandate on the Committee,
      12. when applying this priority system, date of receipt of full and complete nominations by the World Heritage Centre shall be used as a secondary factor to determine the priority between those nominations that would not be designated by the previous points.
   4. the States Parties co-authors of a transboundary or transnational serial nomination can choose, amongst themselves and with a common understanding, the State Party which will be bearing this nomination; and this nomination can be registered exclusively within the ceiling of the bearing State Party.

[1] This provision also applies in case the resubmitted referred nomination is received in the third year following the referral decision.