UNESCO
Norway has been a member of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee since 2017, and several new nominations for the World Heritage List will be considered at the last meeting during this period.
The entry on the UNESCO World Heritage List is a huge prestige
The UNESCO World Heritage List contains the most unique natural and cultural heritage we have in the world.
On July 16-31, important issues related to the World Heritage List will be discussed at the annual meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. The meeting was supposed to be in Fuzhou, China, but will be fully digital due to the Koran pandemic. Norway is a member of the committee along with 20 other countries, but this is Norway's last meeting in 2017-2021.
– Inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List is associated with great prestige, and today the list is dominated by cultural heritage from Western countries. Therefore for Norway important was to ensure that new entries actually met the strict requirements required for a place on the list. During the commission period, Norway actively contributed to reforming the nomination process to ensure exactly this. If the reform is adopted at this year's meeting, it will remain an important milestone for us, says Minister of Climate and Environment Sveinung Rotevatn.
Meeting in Norway. At its last meeting during this period, the committee will consider 44 nominations for new World Heritage sites
As a committee member Norway does not submit its own nominations to the List World Heritage Site. At its final meeting of the period, the commission will consider 44 nominations for new World Heritage sites. The committee will also assess a number of reports on the status of existing World Heritage sites and assess a number of security and management challenges. Through its decisions, the Committee can impose detailed and sometimes invasive requirements on member countries to ensure that World Heritage is protected worldwide. Each year, member states can nominate new sites of "outstanding universal value" for inclusion on the World Heritage List. Nominated sites should be considered so important that they should be preserved for future generations. Norway has helped strengthen the process countries must follow to get on the list.
Today, the World Heritage List is dominated by areas from resource-rich countries, important natural heritage is underrepresented
The reform will therefore also contribute to creating a more representative and balanced list divided by topic and geography. Norway believes that reforming this process will increase national awareness and ensure a level playing field in promoting nominations. If the reform is adopted at this year's meeting, it will be one of the most important and comprehensive changes in the system nominations.
Riksantikvar Hanna Kosonen Geiran chairs the Norwegian delegation to the committee, whose deputy is content director Berit Lein of the Norwegian Environment Agency. The delegation also includes representatives of the Ministry of Climate and Environment, the National Heritage Council, the Norwegian Environment Agency and the permanent delegation of Norway to Unesco.
The World Heritage Convention is an international agreement for the protection of cultural and natural heritage in the world
The World Heritage Convention is the most important international agreement for the protection of cultural and natural heritage in the world and one of the most important environmental agreements. The convention has, inter alia, contribute to sustainable development and ensure peace and security. The convention obliges Member States to identify, protect, disseminate and pass on to future generations the most unique cultural and natural heritage in the world. The World Heritage List includes 1121 cultural and natural sites. Norway has eight areas listed.
The World Heritage Committee is an expert committee, and Norway works on substantive decisions in accordance with the guidelines and principles of the convention.
Read our next article: November 11 in Oslo ...
Meeting in Norway. The following countries are members of the committee:
Australia, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Uganda.
Norway has eight UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage sites:
- Bryggen in Bergen (1979)
- Urnes stave church (1979)
- Røros bergstad og Circumferensen (1980 and extended in 2010)
- Bergkunsten in Alta (1985)
- Vegaøyan (2004)
- Struves meridianbue - four Norwegian points (2005)
- Vestnorsk fjordlandskap - Geirangerfjorden and Nerøyfjorden (2005)
- Rjukan-Notodden industriarv (2015)
