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Minister of State Pieper on Germany’s election to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee
At the current session of UNESCO’s General Conference Germany was today elected with 105 votes to serve on the Organization’s World Heritage Committee. Speaking in Paris today (7 November), Minister of State Cornelia Pieper, who heads the German delegation to the Conference, commented as follows:
“We are proud and happy that after 14 years we have once again been elected to the World Heritage Committee. We see this as recognition of all Germany is doing to preserve World Heritage sites not only in Germany but also around the world.
As a member of the World Heritage Committee, Germany – which has as many as 36 of the 936 sites inscribed on the World Heritage list – will seek to ensure that the list is balanced and credible. Our expertise in this area is greatly valued. Germany is the only country to have two chairs in World Heritage studies, one at the University of Cottbus and one at RWTH Aachen University.
We are delighted to be privileged now to share our extensive experience in protecting and preserving World Heritage sites with our UNESCO partners in this special forum.”
Nine out of a total of 21 seats on the World Heritage Committee were due to be filled at this year’s elections. Besides Germany, the following countries were elected in the first round of voting for seats on the Committee: Japan (113 votes), India (111 votes), Algeria (101 votes), Senegal (97 votes), Malaysia (96 votes), Serbia (86 votes).
