46th convention of World Heritage Committee concludes, delegates call stay in India “memorable”

As the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee concluded, on Wednesday, several delegates expressed their pleasure in being a part of the committee.

Jyoti Hosagrahar, the Deputy Director of the World Heritage Centre, UNESCO, said that the experience was ‘enormously rewarding’.

“It has been my great pleasure to be part of the World Heritage Committee’s 46th session in India. It has been an enormously rewarding and valuable experience…The session has gone flawlessly. Everything has been managed extremely well… The World Heritage Convention is one of the most ratified conventions in the world, with more than 196 parties today… There were 24, inscriptions that were made,” Hosagrahar said.

She added that the conservation of the World Heritage sites is of prime importance.

“But… equally valuable is the state of conservation of all these properties, because as the properties join the World Heritage list, more care has to be taken for all these properties. And the state of conservation…is examined by the World Heritage Committee, especially when there are issues…So the committee looks both at the state of conservation of properties as well as new inscriptions, and the committee is elected,” Hosagrahar said.

Hosagrahar added that out of the 196 state parties, 21 members are elected, and there is a chairperson for the committee. This year saw India as the chairperson and the host country. Next year, the chairperson will be in Bulgaria.

Miguel Angel Hildmann, Argentina’s ambassador to UNESCO, said that he learned a lot from India’s spirit.

“India hosted the World Heritage Convention for the first time. We have learned from the Indian spirit. We were like a family…and it was a fantastic professional and personal experience. Many sites have been included in the World Heritage… We need to work a lot to keep the sites inscribed in good condition and well-protected… We need to think about the future and engage everybody with this, with the protection of the sites that we inscribed,” Hildmann said.

Speaking to ANI on whether he is looking forward to the next convention in Bulgaria, Hildmann said that Bulgaria is a fantastic country and is very engaged with the convention. He joked, “They will have a very difficult task to be as good as you have been. And it’s very difficult because this meeting was perfect.”

Caroline Varnet, UN Secretariat said that she was glad to visit India and travel as it was her first visit here.

“…I’m really glad we had the chance to come here and that held India as a host country because it was a great experience to discover the country, [and] travel here for the first time,” she said.

Speaking to ANI, Varnet added, “The inclusion of many more sites, especially from Africa, in the World Heritage list is important. So we’re really happy and this is good. I hope it continues. And we have more sites and more amazing cultural and natural heritage inscribed on this list.”

Varnet added that she would leave for Agra in the afternoon to see the Taj Mahal and she would visit the Red Fort next week.

Kagosi Mwamulowe, the Director of conservation services and natural heritage expert, while talking to ANI, said that I wanted to state that, he was excited as all sites from five African states were considered World Heritage Sites.

“All five African states’ nominations have been successful in being inscribed. I want to celebrate the Nelson Mandela legacy site being the first site to be inscribed based on human rights. And beyond that we are proud to see one of our sites, Nyokoba, which is a national park in Zambia, which was on a danger list for a long time, being removed from that list.”

Speaking about his experience in India, Mwamulowe said that he liked the hospitality in India. “I want to appreciate the warm hospitality of the people of India. I’ve enjoyed the city of New Delhi. I had the opportunity to visit the Taj Mahal World Heritage Site. That site is simply amazing. It’s one of our cultural wonders of the world.”

Muyumbwa Ndiyoi, Acting Executive Director of the National Heritage Conservation Convention in Zambia, said that he appreciated the long history of India in terms of cultural preservation.

“We haven’t seen all the national monuments that you have, but from what we could see, in terms of the documentation that you provided around this place and certain places that are within Delhi, like the India Gate, India shows that it has got an ethic of cultural preservation. We will carry these memories as we get back,” he said.

Speaking to ANI about the session, Ndiyoi said, “India has done a great job in hosting this session. We look forward to the meeting in Bulgaria, and we also want to learn from them how they have preserved their history, and how they preserve their world heritage sites so that this is part of the heritage for humankind. So we are also looking forward to learning from them.”

Ndiyoi added that the World Heritage Convention creates a platform for the exchange of cultures, “We have learned something from India, how their culture and we also want to learn from Bulgaria about how their culture is in terms of the preservation of heritage.”

Talking about his experience in India, Ndiyoi said, “My experience of India while attending this 46th session is memorable. And India is a beautiful country. It’s my first time to be here. I know I haven’t travelled the whole country, but from what I’ve seen around, the city is a beautiful place. And I think India did a very good job of hosting this session. The people we have met were calm, welcoming and very helpful. And I think this will leave us with a lot of memories about India.”