COMMITTEE

The Committee is the responsible body and it:

– selects new sites for the World Heritage List, among the cultural and natural properties nominated by the various Member States;

– protects the sites on the List by distributing the resources of the World Heritage Fund and by determining technical and financial aid that has to be distributed to the different Member States.

It is composed of twenty-one Member States, elected by the General Assembly every six years. It meets once a year to discuss issues related to the implementation of the Convention. It decides the inscription of new properties on the World Heritage List, sets the budget of the World Heritage Fund for the following year, examines international assistance requests, defines political matters, and so on.

The Committee also elects the members of its bureau: Chairperson, Rapporteur and five Vice-Chairpersons. The bureau has its headquarters in Paris.

It is assisted by international NGOs, such as:

– the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS);

– the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), responsible for technical evaluations of each proposal;

– the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), which gives expert advice for the conservative restoration of monuments.