ICOMOS is deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation caused by the earthquake on Friday 8 September – whose epicentre is situated in the al-Haouz province,  south-east of Marrakech, Morocco. Housing and public buildings of rural communities and the World Heritage City of Marrakesh, as well as the Tinmel Mosque, on Morocco’s World Heritage tentative list, are already reported to have been affected.

The Opening of the Extended 45^th Session of the World Heritage Committee will take place from 10 to 25 September 2023 in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Both the ICOMOS Evaluation Unit and the Monitoring Unit will be present through their Directors, along with Teresa Patricio, President of ICOMOS International, and Marie-Laure Lavenir, General Director of ICOMOS International.

ICOMOS, together with its Japanese National Committee, is issuing a Heritage Alert to stop the destruction of approximately 3,000 trees and loss of open park space in Jingu Gaien, Tokyo, Japan. ICOMOS strongly warns against the construction of skyscrapers in a world-renowned park, without consultation with citizens and stakeholders. The redevelopement project is scheduled to begin in September.

In celebration of more than 10 years of contribution to the promotion of Rights-Based Approaches and to building awareness of rights issues in World Heritage and heritage management, the ICOMOS Our Common Dignity - Rights Based Approaches (OCD-RBA) has assembled an e-publication with the goal of documenting the working group’s experiences and providing resources and tools for caretakers of cultural heritage.

The Arabic translation of the ICOMOS document Heritage and the Sustainable Development Goals: Policy Guidance for Heritage and Development Actors was officially launched on 2 September 2023 at the Sustainable Development Goals Working Group (SDGWG) Annual General Meeting, during ICOMOS' Triennial General Assembly in Sydney, Australia.

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the three Advisory Bodies – ICCROM, ICOMOS and IUCN –are developing their first joint toolkit on climate action for World Heritage. Coordinated through the World Heritage Leadership programme, and with the initial support from the Australian Government, the toolkit will support States Parties and site managers to integrate climate change action in the management strategies of World Heritage sites.