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Maltese delegation attends World Heritage Committee Session in Naples
PR2370
11/12/1997
11/12/1997
| A delegation from the Ministry of Education and National Culture | attended the 21st session of the World Heritage Committee, which was held at the Royal Palace of Naples, between the 1st and the 6th December. Malta is one of the 21 committee members elected for a six-year term to represent the 152 State Parties which had signed the U.N.E.S.C.O. 1972 "Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage." Thirty-four other States and five non-governmental organizations attended as observers, while three other organizations attended in an advisory capacity. |
| During this session periodic reports on the state of conservation | of properties inscribed on the World Heritage List were examined. Thirty-eight cultural sites were declared as being of outstanding universal value and added to the 506 already inscribed on the World Heritage List. These new inscriptions include the archaeological areas of Pompei, Herculanum and Torre Annunziata in southern Italy, Lumbini - the birthplace of Lord Buddha in Nepal, and Maritime Greenwich in the U.K. Seven natural properties, including Mount Kenya National Park and Mount Perdu in the Pyrenees, which is of a mixed cultural and natural interest, were also enlisted. Two nominations were deferred. |
| Unfortunately, twelve natural properties, including Everglades | National Park in the U.S.A. and seven cultural properties, including the City of Dubrovnik in Croatia, have been retained on the List of World Heritage in Danger. A park in the Central African Republic and two others in the Democratic Republic of Congo were added to this same list mostly because of the presence of militia groups, poaching, illegal settlements, removal of timber and gold mining. The archaeological site of Butrinti, in Albania, which had suffered damage from looting during the period of civil unrest, was also inscribed on the danger list. However, the Committee decided to remove Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia from the List of World Heritage in Danger. |
| The prevention of illicit traffic of cultural property and the | preliminary draft of the European Landscape Convention were also discussed. During the Naples meeting the World Heritage Centre expressed its satisfaction and promised its support for the Maltese Ministry of Education and National Culture commitment to set up training facilities for the restoration, conservation and management of the Maltese sites on the World Heritage List, namely the Megalithic Temples, the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, and the City of Valletta, so as to pass them to future generations in the best possible condition. |
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