Cultural Heritage Administration Submits Letter of Intent to UNESCO Headquarters
"Outstanding Main Conference Venue Conditions and City Accessibility"
The Cultural Heritage Administration announced on June 30 that it has recently submitted a letter of intent to UNESCO headquarters to host the 48th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which will be held next year. The city of Busan has been selected as the candidate host city for the meeting.
The World Heritage Committee is an intergovernmental body that convenes annually to make key decisions regarding the inscription of new World Heritage sites and the monitoring and management of existing sites. This large-scale event brings together approximately 3,000 participants, including the Director-General of UNESCO, delegations from State Parties, and cultural heritage experts.
Since its inception in Paris, France in 1977, the committee has never been held in Korea. Previous host cities in Asia include Phuket, Thailand (1994); Kyoto, Japan (1998); Suzhou, China (2004); and Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Cambodia (2013).
The next host city and chair country will be announced on July 15 during the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee. If Busan is selected as the next host city, Korea will welcome the event for the first time in 37 years since joining the convention in 1988.
On this day, Busan was officially selected as the final candidate city by the Candidate City Selection Committee. It received the highest scores in proposal evaluation and on-site inspections. The Cultural Heritage Administration explained, "We highly evaluated Busan's main conference venue conditions, the city's accessibility, and its connectivity with nearby World Heritage sites."
Meanwhile, at this year's committee, the petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream in Ulsan are expected to be inscribed as Korea's seventeenth World Heritage site. Previously, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), which serves as an advisory and evaluation body in the World Heritage field, recommended inscription for "Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream," which the Korean government had nominated for World Heritage status.
ICOMOS investigates nominated heritage sites from each country and submits one of four recommendations to the World Heritage Centre: inscription, "deferral," "referral," or "non-inscription." In general, sites that receive a recommendation for inscription are inscribed by the World Heritage Committee unless exceptional circumstances arise.
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