Filling the Gaps- A Strategy Paper from ICOMOS for the UNESCO-World Heritage List
The International Council on Monuments and Sights (ICOMOS)is an important advisory body of the World Heritage Committee.
In 2004 it published a document called The World Heritage List: Filling The Gaps - An Action Plan For The Future, an analysis of the situation of the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Aims of the action plan that resulted out of the analysis are:
- To achieve a credible Tentative List for every State Party which has ratified the Convention
- To optimise the success of World Heritage nominations
- To make the new Operational Guidelines operational
- To achieve sustainable World Heritage properties in the sense of constant protection and conservation
- To raise awareness of the World Heritage Convention.
reference: http://www.international.icomos.org/world_heritage/whlgaps-eng.pdf
Some Problems that have been identified are:
- European cultural sites are more represented in the list than those from other continents
- some countries don't have appropriate tenative lists or/and approprate inventories
- some countries dont't have the legal framework to protect the cultural goods
- some themes and categories are under-represented in the World Heritage List, e.g.agricultural landscpaes, non-christian religious properties or modern heritage
The document includes an action plan 2004-2008 to achieve its aims.
One of the actions was the revision of the Operational Guidelines.
