ICOMOS World Heritage Panel 2016

From 21 to 29 November 2016, the ICOMOS World Heritage Panel met at ICOMOS International Secretariat, Charenton-le-Pont, in order to discuss 29 cultural and mixed properties nominated for inscription on the World Heritage List in 2017. This year, nominations included three proposals to extend existing WH properties.

The ICOMOS Panel meeting was divided into three parts:

During the first part from 21 to 24 November, the Panel members examined and discussed the 29 cultural and mixed sites nominated for inscription.

During the second part held from 24 to 26 November, ICOMOS offered the opportunity to the Delegations from each nominating States Parties to hold meetings in order to discuss the issues raised by their nominations during the Panel meeting. This initiative, was made on an experimental basis, and was implemented in the framework of early dialogue between ICOMOS and the States Parties.

During the third and last part of the Panel held from 28 to 29 November, Panel members discussed again the nominated properties and adopted provisional recommendations. During this part of the meeting, the content of the technical recommendations was discussed together with the content of the Interim reports and the additional information requests.

Interim reports, as prescribed by the revised Operational Guidelines, were delivered to each nominating State Party between December 2016-January 2017.

Before the discussions took place, Panel members rigorously examined a range of documents including the nomination dossiers and additional information submitted by States Parties as well as the ICOMOS evaluation mission reports, the desk reviews and information provided by relevant ICOMOS National Committees. All this information was submitted to Panel members two months in advance before the meeting and Panel members were requested to provide a written report with their views on the basis of a template provided by the Evaluation Unit.

Over a period of eight days, the ICOMOS WH Panel, composed of international conservation experts from 24 countries representing all five continents, carried out in-depth discussions about the nominated sites in order to consider whether the proposed sites fulfill the criteria required for inscription on the World Heritage List and to draft recommendations, in line with the requirements established in the Operational Guidelines for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, for the next session of the WH Committee to be held in July 2017.

To ensure the quality of the decision-making process of the ICOMOS WH Panel, the collective expertise of the Panel was complimented by the advice provided by the ICOMOS advisors as well as the knowledge of international experts from ICOMOS International Scientific Committees who are invited for their specific field of expertise and on an annual basis, according to the characteristics of the nominated properties to be examined.

Furthermore, each member of the Panel undertakes to attend the whole of the meeting, and to actively take part in the work of the Panel. In particular, each Panel member reviewed several files in detail and provided a written report before the beginning of the meeting.

All Panel members must take care to avoid potential perceptions of conflicts of interest. In all cases, an ICOMOS Panel member whose nationality is the same as that of the subject of the evaluation is absent from the discussion and decision-making process. At the beginning of the meeting, all Panel members are required to sign the ICOMOS World Heritage Policy Paper (available on www.icomos.org).

The Panel members undertake to respect the confidentiality of the discussions that occur, including the agreed ICOMOS recommendations. In finalizing and releasing the outcomes of the evaluations, communication with State Parties should be conducted solely via the ICOMOS International Secretariat.

The Panel working languages are English and French. Simultaneous translation is provided by ICOMOS through a team of professional translators.

Whereas Advisers’ travel and accommodation expenses are covered by ICOMOS through the World Heritage budget, the ICOMOS officers, representatives of ICOMOS International Scientific Committees and invited experts are required to cover these expenses themselves. The World Heritage Committee allocated some extra-budget to allow ICOMOS to provide funding to some of the experts in order to ensure the balanced representation of all regions.

An ICOMOS WH Panel met again in March 2017 to discuss the outcomes following the November - December 2016 Panel, notably the responses received from the States Parties contacted with further requests, in order to finalize the ICOMOS evaluation reports which are submitted to the World Heritage Centre and distributed to the Committee six weeks before the upcoming WH Committee session. The World Heritage Committee shall then make the final decisions on whether to inscribe or to not inscribe a site, defer a decision, or refer a nomination back to the State Party.
Also during the March Panel meeting, some cases for Upstream assistance were presented to the ICOMOS Panel.

List of 2016 Panel Members

Panel Chairmen
Alfredo Conti, Vice-President (Argentina)
Toshiyuki Kono, Vice-President (Japan)

Permanent Members (ICOMOS Bureau members)
Kirsti Kovanen, Secretary General (Finland)
Laura Robinson, Treasurer General (South Africa)
Gideon Koren, Vice-President (Israel)
Grellan Rourke, Vice-President (Ireland)

Representatives from the ICOMOS Scientific Committees
CIVVIH (Historic Towns and Villages): Claus-Peter Echter (Germany)
ISCCL (Cultural Landscapes): Nancy Pollock-Ellwand (Canada)
ICAHM (Archaeological Heritage Management): Douglas Comer (USA)

Invited Experts
Philippe Bragard (Belgium)
Jae-Heon Choi (Korea)
Alpha Diop (Mali)
Tamas Fejerdy (Hungary)
Abdoul Aziz Guisse (Senegal)
Zhou Lu (China)
Mario Rivera (Chile)
Nathan Schlanger (France)
Anas Soufan (Syria)
Cees Van Roiijen (Netherlands)

ICOMOS Advisers (2016-2017 evaluation cycle)
Luisa De Marco (Italy)
Susan Denyer (United Kingdom)
Britta Rudolff (Germany/Bahrain)
Kristal Buckley (Australia)
Hossam Mahdy (Egypt/UK)
Jean-Yves Andrieux (France)
Mohammed Hamdouni (Morocco)
James Molnar (Canada)

Representatives from other Advisory Bodies (Observers)
ICCROM: Joseph King (USA)
IUCN: Christelle Perruchoud (Switzerland)

 

Relationship between nominations and Panel members per region

Region	Dossiers 2017	%	Panel members	%
Africa	3	10	3	11
Arab States	3	10	3	11
Asia/Pacific	6	20	4	15
Eur/NA	15	53	15	56
LAC	2	7	2	7
TOTAL	29	100	27	100