Resolution : CONF 018 1-6
Opening of the General Assembly by the Director-General
- The Third General Assembly of States Parties to the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural-Heritage met in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, on 7 October 1980 during the 21st session of the General Conference.
- Forty-eight of the fifth-three States which were Parties to the Convention as at 7 October 1980 and which thus had the right to vote, were represented at the meeting, namely Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Italy, Jordan, Mali, Monaco, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan,' Panama, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Socialist 'People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Republic of Tanzania, United States of America, Yugoslavia, Zaire.
- Representatives of the following States not Parties to the Convention also participated, as observers, in the General Assembly Austria, Cuba, Finland, Japan, Madagascar, Malawi, Netherlands, Omani; Thailand, United Kingdom and Uruguay. Representatives of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), one of the advisory organizations to the World Heritage Committee, of the Arab Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) and of the International Council qif Museums. (ICON) also attended the meeting in an observer capacity.
- The list of participants at the General Assembly is given in Annex I to this document.
- In accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly as adopted by the Second General Assembly of States Parties (Paris, 24 November 1978), the Secretariat of the Assembly was assumed the Secretariat of Unesco.
- In opening the meeting, the Director-General stated that the Convention, to which 53 States were now Parties, had become fully operational since the first General Assembly held in 1976. So far 85 cultural and natural sites had been entered on the World Heritage List. In selecting these properties, the World Heritage Committee has been particularly concerned that only those which were unquestionably of outstanding universal value should be included in the List in order to assure its credibility. The Director-General drew attention to the need to maintain a balance in the application of the Convention between the cultural heritage and natural heritage fields and in particular to attain a better balance between specialists from the two disciplines among those participating in the work of the Committee. The value of the World Heritage List froth the educational and public information standpoints was underlined by the Director-General who described the different promotional activities already undertaken and those foreseen. He had no doubt that this effort would be actively pursued at the national level and he recalled his suggestion that a plaque be systematically placed at each site inscribed on the List. The Director-General informed the Assembly that technical cooperation activities amounting to $550,000 had already been financed in 18 countries including more than $ 200,000 for training and furthermore that the Committee had recently authorized the financing of other technical cooperation activities within a total budget of just over a million. The Director-General concluded by expressing the hone that many other States would soon join in the safeguarding system instituted by the Convention so that the international community as a whole may be associated in the most worthwhile task of protecting the world cultural and natural heritage.
Resolution Code: CONF 018 1-6
Year: 1980