Jerusalem/cultural heritage – Implementation of 33 C/Resolution 50 and 175 EX/Decision 14 – UNESCO report

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Item 20 of the provisional agenda

JERUSALEM AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF 33 C/RESOLUTION 50

AND 175 EX/DECISION 14

1. 32 C/Resolution 39 (adopted by the General Conference in October 2003), requested “the Director-General to establish, within a year, an equitably composed committee of experts to be entrusted with proposing, on an exclusively scientific and technical basis, guidelines for this plan of action and proposals for its implementation”. The first meeting of this Committee took place on 25 and 26 January 2005. Its report was distributed to Member States, as an annex to document 33 C/13.

2. The Director-General convened a second meeting of the International Committee of Experts on the Safeguarding of the Cultural Heritage of the Old City of Jerusalem on 4 and 5 September 2006 to review the progress made since September 2005 towards the elaboration of the Action Plan and to endorse it. The recommendations of the International Committee of Experts both to complete the draft Action Plan and to move towards the second phase – i.e. its implementation – were presented in document 175 EX/15 Add., of which the Executive Board took note.1

3. An experts’ mission to finalize the project profiles of the Action Plan took place in November 2006. Its main objectives were to:

(a) develop the project profiles as identified in the framework of the activity “Needs map for the conservation of historic monuments and sites” and following the discussion of the second meeting of the Committee of Experts (Paris, 4-5 September 2006);

(b) identify the possible training activities to be developed in the second phase;

(c) hold a technical meeting to discuss the manual for housing maintenance and rehabilitation, as decided by the Committee of Experts in September 2006;

(d) discuss the implementation of the first cultural activities approved by the Committee of Experts.

4. Further steps have been carried out in the following areas:

(a) preparation of a draft document presenting the project profiles;

(b) study of the modalities for training activities to be implemented;

(c) preparation of the revised version of the manual for housing rehabilitation;

(d) definition of the detailed work plan for the implementation of the cultural activities and establishment of the contracts with the implementing agencies.

5. The Executive Board, at its 175th session, encouraged Member States to contribute to the efforts towards the implementation of the programmed activities as identified by the experts and the concerned authorities, notably by extrabudgetary resources. Indeed, the activities foreseen can only be carried out if funding is secured, following the generous contribution from the Italian Government of an amount of US $450,000, which made possible the elaboration of the Action Plan.

6. In addition to the initiative of the Director-General, funding was mobilized for two other projects which are expected to be initiated during the first semester 2007 and to complement rehabilitation efforts in the Old City of Jerusalem:

• the refurbishment and design of the Islamic Museum of Al-Aqsa, located close to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Haram es-Sharif, thanks to a contribution from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for an amount of $1,130,000;

• the development of an Architectural Heritage Preservation Institute, in partnership with the Welfare Association, thanks to funding from the European Commission for an amount of €700,000.

7. It should be added that, by decision 30 COM 7A.34, the World Heritage Committee requested the World Heritage Centre to report on the state of conservation of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls, site inscribed on the World Heritage List and on the List of World Heritage in Danger, as well as on the progress and implementation of the Action Plan for the safeguarding of the cultural heritage of the Old City of Jerusalem, together with the necessary achievable benchmarks, for examination by the Committee at its 31st session in June 2007.

8. An addendum will be issued before the 176th session of the Board in order to keep the Executive Board informed of recent developments related to the protection of the cultural heritage of the World Heritage site of the Old City of Jerusalem.

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¹The minutes of the second meeting of the International Committee of Experts on the Safeguarding of the Cultural Heritage of the Old City of Jerusalem will be published as an INF document attached to this agenda item.