World Heritage Committee

The World Heritage Committee is the group which decides on the places to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It makes sure that the agreements in World Heritage Convention are followed. It also decides how the money in the World Heritage Fund is spent. The committee has 21 members who are elected from the 188 countries that have agreed to the World Heritage Convention.^[1]

According to the World Heritage Convention, committee members are elected for six years, however many of the representatives choose to be on the committee for only four years. This gives more countries a chance to take part.^[1] At the 15th General Assembly (2005) all the committee members agreed to serve for only four years.^[1]

Session

The World Heritage Committee meets many times a year to discuss the management of existing World Heritage Sites, and to look at possible new sites. A special meeting, known as the World Heritage Committee Session, takes place each year where sites are added (inscribed) to the World Heritage List.

The annual session takes place in cities all over the world. With the exception of meetings held in Paris, where the UNESCO headquarter office is located, only countries who are members of the World Heritage Committee have the right to hold a Session. The cities are decided by the Committee.

Session	Year	Date	Host city	State party
1	1977	27 June–1 July	Paris	France
2	1978	5 September–8 September	Washington, D.C.	United States
3	1979	22 October–26 October	Cairo & Luxor	Egypt
4	1980	1 September–5 September	Paris	France
5	1981	26 October–30 October	Sydney	Australia
6	1982	13 December–17 December	Paris	France
7	1983	5 December–9 December	Florence	Italy
8	1984	29 October–2 November	Buenos Aires	Argentina
9	1985	2 December–6 December	Paris	France
10	1986	24 November–28 November	Paris	France
11	1987	7 December–11 December	Paris	France
12	1988	5 December–9 December	Brasília	Brazil
13	1989	11 December–15 December	Paris	France
14	1990	7 December–12 December	Banff	Canada
15	1991	9 December–13 December	Carthage	Tunisia
16	1992	7 December–14 December	Santa Fe	United States
17	1993	6 December–11 December	Cartagena	Colombia
18	1994	12 December–17 December	Phuket	Thailand
19	1995	4 December–9 December	Berlin	Germany
20	1996	2 December–7 December	Mérida	Mexico
21	1997	1 December–6 December	Naples	Italy
22	1998	30 November–5 December	Kyoto	Japan
23	1999	29 November–4 December	Marrakech	Morocco
24	2000	27 November–2 December	Cairns	Australia
25	2001	11 December–16 December	Helsinki	Finland
26	2002	24 June–29 June	Budapest	Hungary
27	2003	30 June–5 July	Paris	France
28	2004	28 June–7 July	Suzhou	China
29	2005	10 July–17 July	Durban	South Africa
30	2006	8 July–16 July	Vilnius	Lithuania
31	2007	23 June–1 July	Christchurch	New Zealand
32	2008	2 July-10 July	Quebec City	Canada
33	2009	22 June-30 June	Seville	Spain
34	2010	25 July-3 August	Brasília	Brazil
35	2011	19 June-29 June	Paris	France
36	2012	25 June-5 July	Saint Petersburg	Russia