The 46th session of the World Heritage Committee, held in India, concluded on Wednesday, July 31, leaving delegates reflecting on their rewarding experiences and expressing gratitude for India’s exceptional hosting.
Jyoti Hosagrahar, Deputy Director of the World Heritage Centre at UNESCO, highlighted the significance of the event. “It has been my great pleasure to be part of the World Heritage Committee’s 46th session in India. It has been an enormously rewarding and valuable experience… The session has gone flawlessly. Everything has been managed extremely well… The World Heritage Convention is one of the most ratified conventions in the world, with more than 196 parties today… There were 24 inscriptions that were made,” she said. Hosagrahar emphasised the importance of the conservation of World Heritage sites, noting that as new properties are added to the list, greater care must be taken to maintain their condition. “The state of conservation…is examined by the World Heritage Committee, especially when there are issues…So the committee looks both at the state of conservation of properties as well as new inscriptions, and the committee is elected,” she added.
Hosagrahar also mentioned that the committee comprises 21 elected members from the 196 state parties, with a chairperson presiding over the meetings. This year, India held the chairpersonship and served as the host country, with Bulgaria set to take over next year.
Argentina’s ambassador to UNESCO, Miguel Angel Hildmann, praised India’s hospitality and the spirit of the event. “India hosted the World Heritage Convention for the first time. We have learned from the Indian spirit. We were like a family…and it was a fantastic professional and personal experience. Many sites have been included in the World Heritage… We need to work a lot to keep the sites inscribed in good condition and well-protected… We need to think about the future and engage everybody with this, with the protection of the sites that we inscribed,” Hildmann said. Looking forward to next year’s convention in Bulgaria, he humorously noted, “They will have a very difficult task to be as good as you have been. And it’s very difficult because this meeting was perfect.”
Caroline Varnet from the UN Secretariat shared her enthusiasm about visiting India for the first time. “I’m really glad we had the chance to come here and that held India as a host country because it was a great experience to discover the country, [and] travel here for the first time,” she said. Varnet highlighted the importance of including more sites from Africa on the World Heritage list. “The inclusion of many more sites, especially from Africa, in the World Heritage list is important. So we’re really happy and this is good. I hope it continues. And we have more sites and more amazing cultural and natural heritage inscribed on this list,” she added. Varnet planned to visit the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort during her stay.
Kagosi Mwamulowe, Director of Conservation Services and Natural Heritage Expert, expressed his excitement about the recognition of sites from African states. “All five African states’ nominations have been successful in being inscribed. I want to celebrate the Nelson Mandela legacy site being the first site to be inscribed based on human rights. And beyond that we are proud to see one of our sites, Nyokoba, which is a national park in Zambia, which was on a danger list for a long time, being removed from that list.” Mwamulowe appreciated the warm hospitality of India, describing his visit to the Taj Mahal as an awe-inspiring experience.
Muyumbwa Ndiyoi, Acting Executive Director of the National Heritage Conservation Convention in Zambia, praised India’s long history of cultural preservation. “We haven’t seen all the national monuments that you have, but from what we could see, in terms of the documentation that you provided around this place and certain places that are within Delhi, like the India Gate, India shows that it has got an ethic of cultural preservation. We will carry these memories as we get back,” he said. Ndiyoi commended India’s hosting of the session and expressed eagerness to learn from Bulgaria’s heritage preservation practices in the upcoming meeting. “India has done a great job in hosting this session. We look forward to the meeting in Bulgaria, and we also want to learn from them how they have preserved their history, and how they preserve their world heritage sites so that this is part of the heritage for humankind. So we are also looking forward to learning from them,” he added.
Reflecting on his experience in India, Ndiyoi remarked, “My experience of India while attending this 46th session is memorable. And India is a beautiful country. It’s my first time to be here. I know I haven’t travelled the whole country, but from what I’ve seen around, the city is a beautiful place. And I think India did a very good job of hosting this session. The people we have met were calm, welcoming and very helpful. And I think this will leave us with a lot of memories about India.”
The 46th session of the World Heritage Committee has been a platform for cultural exchange and learning, setting a high standard for future conventions.