Brief Write Up

In an attempt to achieve, as far as possible, the proper identification, protection, conservation, and preservation of the world's irreplaceable heritage, the Member States of UNESCO adopted in 1972 the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (better known as the World Heritage Convention). The Convention complements heritage conservation programmes at the national level and provides for the establishment of a World Heritage Committee and a World Heritage Fund. The World Heritage Committee has, among other essential functions, to identify, on the basis of nominations submitted by States Parties to the Convention, cultural, natural and mixed properties of outstanding universal value which are to be protected under the Convention and to list those properties on the World Heritage List.

ICOMOS is named in the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention as one of the three formal advisory bodies to the World Heritage Committee, along with the World Conservation Union (IUCN), based at Gland (Switzerland), and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), based in Rome (Italy). It is the professional and scientific advisor to the World Heritage Committee on all aspects of the cultural heritage. It takes part in the work of the World Heritage Committee and in the implementation of the Convention.

ICOMOS is responsible for the evaluation of all nominations of cultural and mixed properties made to the World Heritage List by States Parties to the World Heritage Convention against the basic criterion of “outstanding universal value” and the criteria laid down by the World Heritage Convention.