The Cairns Decision of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee
The Cairns Decision (24th session of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee) was mainly on the representativity of UNESCO's World Heritage List and a better management of the increasing workload for the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies.
One action was the (disputed) limitation on 30 new nominations per year.
Nominations
In order to promote the effective management of the increasing size of the World Heritage List, the Committee at each ordinary session will set the maximum number of nominations to be considered. In the first instance and on an interim basis, it is proposed that at the twenty-seventh session of the Committee in 2003, the number of nominations examined by the Committee will be limited to a maximum of 30 new sites. In order to determine which sites should be given priority for consideration, all nominations to be considered at the twenty-seventh session of the Committee must be received in full by the new due date of 1 February 2002 agreed by the Committee as part of the change of cycle of meetings. No State Parties should submit more than one nomination, except those States Parties that have no sites inscribed on the World Heritage List who will have the opportunity to propose two or three nominations. In order to address the issue of representivity of the List the following criteria will be applied in order of priority2: In the event that the number of nominations received exceeds the maximum number set by the Committee, the following priority system will be applied each year by the World Heritage Centre before nominations are transmitted to the advisory bodies for evaluation, in determining which sites should be taken forward for consideration: 2 In nominating properties to the List, States Parties are invited to keep in mind the desirability of achieving a reasonable balance between the numbers of cultural heritage and natural heritage properties included in the World Heritage List (Paragraph 15 of the Operational Guidelines)
- Nominations of sites submitted by a State Party with no sites inscribed on the List;3
- Nominations of sites from any State Party that illustrate un-represented or less represented categories of natural and cultural properties, as determined by analyses prepared by the Secretariat and the Advisory Bodies and reviewed and approved by the Committee;
- Other nominations.
When applying this priority system, date of receipt of full and complete nominations by the World Heritage Centre shall be used as the secondary determining factor within the category where the number of nominations established by the Committee is reached. In addition to the approved maximum number of sites, the Committee will also consider nominations deferred, or referred, from previous meetings and changes to the boundaries of already inscribed properties. The Committee may also decide to consider, on an emergency basis, situations falling under paragraph 67 of the Operational Guidelines.
reference: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001222/122250e.pdf
If there are more than 30 nominations those of under-represented categories should be privileged.
At the 27th session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris, 2003 the Cairns decision was evaluated and modified:
The World Heritage Committee,
- Decides to retain the limit of one new and complete nomination per State Party with properties already on the World Heritage List, as the best means of managing the workload of the Committee, the Advisory Bodies, and the World Heritage Centre, and of improving the geographic distribution of properties on the World Heritage List; States Parties that have no properties inscribed on the World Heritage List will have the opportunity to nominate two or three properties; 67 See Decision 27 COM 2 Decisions adopted by the 27th session WHC-03/27.COM/24, p. 127 of the World Heritage Committee in 2003
- Decides to continue to exempt from this limit transboundary and emergency nominations, changes to the boundaries of properties already inscribed, as well as those nominations which have been deferred and referred by previous sessions of the Committee;
- Invites States Parties nominating properties to keep in mind the desirability of achieving a reasonable balance between the numbers of cultural heritage and natural heritage properties included in the World Heritage List (Paragraph 15 of the Operational Guidelines, July 2002);
- Decides to set at 40 the annual limit on the number of new nominations it will review, exclusive of nominations deferred and referred by previous sessions of the Committee, changes to the boundaries of properties already inscribed, transboundary nominations and nominations submitted on an emergency basis;
- Decides to maintain the deadline for the receipt of complete nominations as 1 February and encourages States Parties to submit draft nominations by 30 September to ensure that nominations have the maximum opportunity of being complete on 1 February (Decision 6 EXT.COM 5.1 Annex 3.9);
- Requests States Parties to send comments and proposals on the Cairns Decision to the World Heritage Centre by 31 December 2003. Comments, sent by post, by facsimile to +33 (0)1 4568 5570, or by e-mail to cairns@unesco.org, will be made available on the World Heritage web site at the following address: http://whc.unesco.org/cairns/;
- Decides to establish, at the beginning of the 28th session of the Committee in Suzhou, China (2004), an open-ended working group to review the comments of States Parties, documents (including the results of the Advisory Bodies' analyses of the World Heritage List and Tentative Lists, and the Report of the 1999/2000 working group on the Representativity of the World Heritage List) and statistics relative to the operation of the Cairns Decision, and to make recommendations to the Committee. For this purpose, the World Heritage Centre will distribute the necessary documentation as early as possible prior to the 28th session to be held in 2004.
reference:http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001331/133114e.pdf
In 2003 the number of nominations was set to 40 per year again plus nominations deferred by previous sessions, changes to the boundaries of properties already inscribed, transboundary
nominations and nominations submitted on an emergency basis.
The justification of the limitation was only based on the heavy workload connected with the growing number of nominations. In the UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage there is no limitation mentioned.
The ongoing discussion on the representativity of the World Heritage List shows e.g. in ICOMOS: Filling the Gaps-Report, that there are significant differences in the allocation of different types of cultural heritage sites.
Ways of getting a more balanced World Heritage List should be found.
Cairns, Australia close to the Wet Tropics of Queensland, a UNESCO World Heritage Site reference:WIKIPEDIA, GNU
