Belgium has been elected to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee
Belgium joins the prestigious UNESCO Committee for the next four years on the occasion of the 23rd General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention.
The World Heritage Committee has 21 members. Belgium was elected in the second round, thanks to the votes of 103 countries out of a total of 194. In addition to Belgium, Argentina, Bulgaria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand and Zambia are also members of this Committee.
Heritage issues are proving to be among the major challenges facing our societies. And Belgium intends to become involved in these debates by focusing on the five Cs: credibility, conservation, capacity building, communities and communication.
In practical terms, Belgium wants to be more involved in the following themes: credibility of the World Heritage Convention, the Convention at a time of major changes, the procedures and processes of the Convention, managing change in and around World Heritage properties and working with the advisory bodies.
This is only the second time that Belgium has had the privilege of joining this prestigious Committee, following its first participation from 1999 to 2003.