India was elected to the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO for a four-year term from 2021-25.

The 23rd General Assembly of the States Parties to the World Heritage Convention at UNESCO headquarters in Paris elected 12 new members to the World Heritage Committee.

They are: 

Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Zambia.

World Heritage Committee

• The Committee is responsible for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance upon requests from States parties.

• It has the final say on whether a property is inscribed on the World Heritage List. 

• It examines reports on the state of conservation of inscribed properties and asks States Parties to take action when properties are not being properly managed. 

• It also decides on the inscription or deletion of properties on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

• The World Heritage Committee meets once a year, and consists of representatives from 21 of the States Parties to the Convention elected by their General Assembly.

World Heritage Committee members

The current composition of the World Heritage Committee is:

Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, Zambia.

Executive Board of the UNESCO

• Last week, India won re-election to the Executive Board of the UNESCO for the 2021-25 term.

• The UNESCO Executive Board is one of the three constitutional organs of the UN agency (the others being the General Conference and the Secretariat) and it is elected by the General Conference. 

• Acting under the authority of the General Conference, the Board examines the programme of work for the organisation and corresponding budget estimates submitted to it by the Director-General.

• It consists of 58 Member States each with a four-year term of office.

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