THE UNESCO PROCESS

Bangkok Post Wednesday July 02, 2008 Thailand

Montreal – The annual scramble for world heritage status opens
on Wednesday evening in Quebec City, where Cambodia and 40 other
countries are seeking the high-profile designation from Unesco for
cultural or natural sites.

The Cambodian application is perhaps the most political. But among
applicants are five countries seeking their first sites on the Unesco
list – Saudi Arabia, Kyrgyzstan, Papua New Guinea, San Marino and
Vanuatu.

Among Eastern European countries, Albania, Croatia, Czech Republic,
Bulgaria, the Russian Federation and Slovakia are applying for
recognition of special sites, and Hungary and Slovakia have a joint
application for designation of a network of fortifications where the
Danube and Vah rivers converge in Komarno.

In the Middle East, applicants include Yemen for its Socotra
Archipelago; Saudi Arabia for archaeological site al-Hijr; Iran for
the Armenian monastic ensembles in its Azerbaijan province; and Israel
for the triple-arch gate at Dan and the Bahai holy places in Haifa
and western Galilee.

The World Heritage Committee is chaired this year by Canada, which
planned the meetings. They conclude on July 10, and coincide with
the kickoff of Quebec City’s 400th anniversary celebrations as one of
North America’s oldest continuously inhabited cities. Those festivities
begin Thursday.

Unesco’s World Heritage list currently includes 851 properties of
"outstanding universal value," including 660 cultural, 166 natural
and 25 mixed properties in 141 countries.

At least 30 are on an endangered list, meaning they either need
special attention to preserve them or have risked being delisted
because conservators have failed either to take proper care of the
sites or to comply with Unesco rules.

Among those on the endangered list is one of Germany’s most historic
and scenic areas of 18th and 19th century significance, the Dresden
Elbe Valley.

German authorities had decided to build a bridge in the heart of
the well-known landscape against the advice of Unesco, which urged
a tunnel. Warnings were issued about the site’s status in 2006 after
the decision to build the bridge was taken.

No site has ever been delisted from the programme, but the issue is
on the agenda for this year, Unesco said in a press release.

Cambodia is seeking designation for its millennium-old temple, Preah
Vihear, dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva.

In a compromise in May, Cambodia agreed to redraw the inscription
map, including only the temple, but the move would limit Unesco’s
say over how Preah Vihear would be preserved, officials in Cambodia
and Thailand said.

And Thailand has been enjoined by a court decision on Monday that it
must refrain from direct support for the Cambodian application. (dpa)