Participation in the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee
The Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (TOBUNKEN) dispatched three staff members to participate in the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee, held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from July 6 to 16, 2025. This year’s committee session was originally planned to be held in Bulgaria, which had been appointed to the presidency. However, the venue was changed during the preparation process due to security concerns.
Although the session usually proceeds smoothly, this time it began in an unusually chaotic manner, due to a proposal requested by the delegation of Türkiye for the exclusion of the NGO “Save the Tigris Foundation” as an observer and the addition of an agenda item to discuss Japan’s response to the World Heritage Committee’s decision at its 39th Session regarding the “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution” requested by the delegation of the Republic of Korea. The proposal to add the agenda item was finally rejected by secret ballot among the Committee members, as consensus could not be reached despite exhaustive discussions that exceeded the scheduled time. On the other hand, the proposal to exclude the NGO from observer status was approved with minimal discussion, prompting widespread concern and objection from State Parties regarding how the Committee members handled the matter.
In the review of the state of conservation of inscribed properties, 248 sites were discussed, including 56 listed as “World Heritage in Danger,” and 3 sites were successfully removed from the Danger List. Recently, an increasing number of properties remaining on the Danger List for extended periods has been recognized by the Committee as a serious concern. State Parties are strongly encouraged to make greater efforts to improve the conditions of these sites. In the establishment of the World Heritage List, 31 sites were discussed, and 26 sites were newly inscribed. A continuing trend of the Committee to overturn the evaluations of the Advisory Bodies has been noted, as evidenced by the fact that only 16 sites received a recommendation for inscription from the Advisory Bodies. However, some progress can be seen in bridging the gap between the evaluations of the Advisory Bodies and the perspectives of State Parties, as many properties have been inscribed with revised nominations that incorporate recommendations to improve their conservation status. As a result of this session, 170 out of 196 State Parties now have properties inscribed on the World Heritage List, with Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau joining for the first time. The uneven regional distribution of inscribed properties has been a long-standing issue for the Committee, as it undermines the representativeness of the World Heritage List. Efforts to correct systemic imbalances have been undertaken, including an updated and in-depth gap analysis conducted by the Advisory Bodies.
In addition, after discussions involving both supporting and opposing views, the outcome of the International Conference on Heritage Authenticity in Africa, held in Nairobi last May with support from the Japanese Funds-in-Trust for the Capacity-Building of Human Resources, was ultimately adopted by the Committee. This is expected to mark a turning point in the revision of value evaluation criteria within the World Heritage system.
The next session of the World Heritage Committee will be held in Busan, Korea, in July next year. TOBUNKEN will continue to monitor developments related to World Heritage and will actively collect and share a wide range of information.
