17 Jul 2018
Azerbaijan to host 2019 session of World Heritage Committee
BY Tom Anstey
The 43rd session of Unesco's World Heritage Committee will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, it has been revealed.
Taking place between 30 June and 10 July next year, the annual meeting aims to regularly examine the state of conservation of properties inscribed on the World Heritage List, adding or removing properties from the prestigious list as appropriate.
At its 42nd session, which took place at the end of June, Unesco made 18 additions to the list, also expanding one existing listing. There was one addition to the World Heritage in Danger list, – Kenya's Lake Turkana National Parks – while Belize Barrier Reef was removed from the In Danger list after an intensive period of landmark conservation action.
Unesco’s 'Revive the Spirit of Mosul' initiative was launched in February to rebuild and give new life to the second largest city in Iraq, much of which was destroyed between 2014 and 2017. This year's session was used as a platform to promote the campaign.
Azerbaijan's minister for culture, Abulfaz Garayev, will act as chair for the 2019 committee, with representatives from Brazil, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Norway and Tunisia acting as vice chairs.
Azerbaijan currently has two sites inscribed on the World Heritage List – the Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's Palace and Maiden Tower, and Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape.
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