W O R L D H E R I T A G E C O N V E N T I O N XVIII Annual Session of the World Heritage Committee Phuket, Thailand, December 12-17, 1994 For the second year in a row we plan to distribute reports from the annual meeting of the World Heritage Committee, which this year is being held in Phuket, Thailand. The World Heritage Committee is the governing body of the World Heritage Convention -- formally the "Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage." Signed in 1972, the Convention is the primary instrument in international law protecting natural and cultural sites of "universal" significance. The Convention has been ratified by 138 countries, and 411 sites have been placed on the list of properties meriting the world's protection and management. The Convention's Secretariat, the World Heritage Centre, is established within the structure of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), headquartered in Paris. Each year at this time, the World Heritage Committee meets to make additions to the World Heritage List, based on nominations by Parties to the Convention of sites in their territories that meet the Convention's rigorous criteria. Two NGOs are assigned the task of reviewing properties for their eligibility: IUCN-The World Conservation Union; and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). The Committee also reviews the reports made by IUCN and ICOMOS on conditions at existing World Heritage sites, and allocates monies from the World Heritage Fund for threatened World Heritage properties. This year, the eighteenth annual session of the Committee is being hosted by the Government of Thailand. Beginning with the opening session of the Committee on Monday, December 12, reports from each day's proceedings will be posted to several different electronic media including the ICOMOS gopher (gopher://hpb.hwc.ca: 7000/11/.icomos/wh/") mailing lists ARCH-L and ANTHRO-L; newsgroups sci.archaeology and sci.anthropology; and Gen.landmarks, a conference on many of the networks of the Association for Progressive Communication, including Pegasus, EcoNet (IGC), GreenNet, Web, AlterNex, and Wamani. If you are interested in seeing the reports, and none of these media are convenient, write to [log in to unmask] and ask to be added to the Phuket list. Please understand that his is NOT an automated listserv, simply a forwarding address, and names must be added manually. The newsletters are a project of the International Council on Monuments and Sites and its two North American national committees, ICOMOS Canada and US/ICOMOS. This year it has been financially supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and travel funds from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences. ========================================================================== W o r l d H e r i t a g e C o m m i t t e e -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ XVIII Annual Session, Phuket, Thailand, December 12-17, 1994 ------ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This distribution is made possible through grants from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training; the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; and Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences. It has been organized with the support of the Inter- national Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and its Canadian and U.S. national committees, ICOMOS Canada and US/ICOMOS. It has had the technical support of the Pegasus Networks (Australia) and the Institute for Global Communications (U.S.). The reports are those of an observer of the meetings and do not represent official publications of ICOMOS, the World Heritage Centre, or any dele- gation. Inquiries to the editor, Peter Stott <[log in to unmask]> or fax to (66-76) 340-479 between December 12 and 17 ==========================================================================