1570Kb - UNESCO World Heritage Centre

World Heritage 31 COM
Distribution Limited WHC-07/31.COM/INF.24
Paris, 20 December 2007
Original: English/French UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC
AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION
CONVENTION CONCERNING THE PROTECTION OF
THE WORLD CULTURAL AND NATURAL HERITAGE World Heritage Committee
Thirty-First Session Christchurch, New Zealand
23 June - 2 July 2007 DRAFT SUMMARY RECORD PROJET DE RESUME DES INTERVENTIONS Sunday, 23 June 2007 (afternoon)
OPENING CEREMONY 03.00 p.m - 06.50 p.m ITEM 1 OPENING OF THE SESSION
1. The 31st session of the World Heritage Committee was opened by Tumu te
Heuheu, Chairman of the World Heritage Committee. A traditional Powhiri
welcome celebration took place at the Christchurch Town Hall auditorium
to open the session in the presence of, among others, the Governor
General of New Zealand, Anand Satyanand; the Prime Minister of New
Zealand, Helen Clark; Deputy Director-General of UNESCO, Marcio
Barbosa, who represented Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura; the
Chairman of UNESCO's Executive Board, Zhang Xinsheng, alongside the
representative of the 21 States that make up the World Heritage
Committee: Benin, Canada, Chile, Cuba, India, Israel, Japan, Kenya,
Kuwait, Lithuania, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Netherlands, New
Zealand, Norway, Peru, Spain, Republic of Korea, Tunisia and the
United States of America. A full list of participants is included in
Annex I to this document.
2. The following States Parties to the World Heritage Convention which are
not members of the Committee were represented as observers: Albania,
Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Barbados,
Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China,
Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia,
Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Finland, France, French
Polynesia, Gabon, Germany, Greece, Holy-See, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran,
Iraq, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kiribati, Latvia, Malaysia, Malta, Marshall
Islands, Mexico, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, New Caledonia, Nigeria, Oman,
Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian
Federation, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Solomon
Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian
Arab Republic, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland, United Republic of Tanzania, Vanuatu,
Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
3. Representatives of the Advisory Bodies to the Committee, namely the
International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration
of Cultural Property (ICCROM), the International Council of Monuments
and Sites (ICOMOS) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) also
attended the session.
4. Statements were made by the personalities attending the opening
session, a summary of which follows below. The full text of each
statement is reproduced at the following Web address:
http://whc.unesco.org/archive/2007. (Note: this web address is password-
protected until the documents are made available to the public.)
5. Rick Tau, Respected Elder of the Ngai Tahu tribe of South Island (New
Zealand) welcomed the participants, notably those of the Northern
Hemisphere, "to the winter of the Southern Hemisphere, winter being a
season of planning" and exhorted them "to open the doors to knowledge
and thought... so that the results of the meetings be acceptable in
terms of brotherhood... and so that we may follow in the footsteps of
our ancestors who left us the landscapes that we know."
6. Te Kananawa Pitiroi, a Respected Elder of the Ngati Tuwharetoa tribe of
the central North Island, also spoke in Maori and exhorted participants
to "remember that the pristineness that remains here is worth
preserving".
7. Parekura Horomia, Maori Affairs Minister and Associate Minister of
Education, also used Maori in his welcome address and urged
participants to let the spirit of the language permeate them.
8. He was followed by Garry Moore, Mayor of Christchurch, who welcomed the
participants of the 31st session of the Committee and introduced them
to the heritage of Christchurch.
9. The Governor-General of New Zealand, Anand Satyanand, then spoke of the
need to protect world heritage sites in the face of serious challenges
including "climate change, depleting fisheries and water resources,
declining ecosystems and a host of other problems". He pointed out that
while the Pacific Region covers one third of the globe, it is
underrepresented on the World Heritage List. Speaking of the particular
history of New Zealand and its longstanding respect for both Maori and
Western institutions and traditions, the Governor-General quoted a
Maori proverb: "Care for the land and care for the people; go forth".
10. Prime Minister Helen Clark for her part highlighted New Zealand's
particularity as a land that has experienced only 1,000 years of human
habitation. As a result, New Zealand has many fragile and unique
ecosystems which must be preserved. Ms Clark stressed that East
Rennell, of the Solomon Islands, is the only World Heritage site to be
found among all of the South Pacific Small Island States.
11. Mr Marcio Barbosa, Deputy-Director General of UNESCO, on behalf of the
Director-General of UNESCO, praised the Maori cultural heritage that
"embraces many different and interlinked forms, both tangible and
intangible. In recognizing the spiritual links uniting Maori people
with their environment, the World Heritage Committee had taken a
decisive step in celebrating the intangible value of natural heritage.
12. Mr Zhang Xinsheng, the Chairman of UNESCO's Executive Board, encouraged
Small Island Developing States of the Pacific to ratify UNESCO's World
Heritage Convention to help correct the region's underrepresentation on
the World Heritage List. He stressed that "in our ever more globalized
world, all dimensions of heritage - natural, cultural, tangible and
intangible - are part of the sustainable development equation" and
warned against the dangers of uniformization generated by
globalization.
13. Dame Silvia Cartwright, Chair of New Zealand's National Commission for
UNESCO then introduced the presentation of the UNESCO Asia Pacific
World Heritage Youth Forum organized prior to the Committee meeting (19-
23 June 2007) in which 30 young students from 12 countries in the
region had participated (Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Japan, Republic
of Korea, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Thailand, Tonga, French Polynesia,
Vanuatu and New Zealand). She stated that the New Zealand National
Commission was actively working on promoting the work of UNESCO in
particular among the youth.
14. "The World Heritage Youth Challenge", prepared as a 10-minute film by
the 30 young students, was shown, highlighting the forum which focussed
on the development of understanding and skills relating to World
Heritage and the environment, integrating Information and Communication
Technologies to encourage and stimulate a fresh perspective to
international heritage issues. The film showed sequences from the youth
forum which had taken place not only in Christchurch but also in five
locations around the Canterbury region, where they were filming and
collecting material while learning about the World Heritage Convention
from heritage and conservation experts.
15. The final speaker of the opening ceremony was Mr Tumu te Heuheu,
Paramount Chief of the Central North Island Tuwharetoa Tribe and
Chairperson of the 31st session of the World Heritage Committee. He
stressed the importance of having communities play their part in the
preservation of heritage, and spoke of the Pacific region's heritage
and the history of its peoples. The meeting rose at 6:50 p.m.
FIRST DAY - SUNDAY 24 JUNE 2007 FIRST MEETING 09.00 a.m. - 01.00 p.m. Chairperson: Mr Tumu te HeuHeu
ITEM 1 OPENING SESSION
16. The Chairperson opened the session at 9:15 am by inviting the Deputy
Director-General to address the Committee on behalf of the Director-
General.
17. The Deputy Director-General of UNESCO brought greetings from the
Director-General, who could not attend due to illness, and presented
the Director-General's speech in French.
18. Le Directeur général adjoint lit le message du Directeur général en
français. Dans son texte, le Directeur général remercie la Nouvelle
Zélande d'accueillir la 31e session du Comité du patrimoine mondial à
Christchurch. Il passe en revue les différents points difficiles que
cette session aura à examiner et à débattre, comme par exemple les
risques qui pèsent sur certains sites de l