top of page
Ahmed Saleh

World Heritage Young Professionals Forum opens in Riyadh during UNESCO's 45th session

Riyadh, September 03, 2023, The World Heritage Young Professionals Forum officially opened today in Riyadh as part of the 45th extended session of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO. With the strong backing of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, and under the direction of Minister of Culture and Chairman of the National Commission for Education, Culture, and Science Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, the Kingdom's hosting of the session this year is the culmination of its efforts to preserve world heritage under the auspices of UNESCO. Today was the first day of the World Heritage Young Professionals Forum. The forum's goal is to increase the contribution that youth make to protecting cultural assets around the world.

The 5th Global Heritage Site Managers' Forum is scheduled to begin on September 18 and run through September 25. It will give global heritage site managers a forum to discuss difficulties in this field as well as their ideas and opinions regarding heritage preservation.

In an effort to improve the standard of heritage preservation and meet challenges, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee is in charge of adding proposed heritage sites to the World Heritage List, assessing the status of listed sites, and receiving reports and proposals submitted by managers of World Heritage sites.

In addition to examining five changes to the borders of heritage sites, the committee will look at requests to add 50 sites to the World Heritage List, including 37 cultural sites, 12 natural sites, and two sites of multiple value. There are 1,157 heritage sites on the World Heritage List, spread across 167 nations, encompassing both natural sites like forests and oases and man-made ones like villages and palaces with significant cultural and historical significance.

Three of the six heritage sites in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that are on the World Heritage List—At-Turaif District in ad-Dir'iyah, Al-Ahsa Oasis in the Eastern Region, and Hegra Archaeological Site (Al-Hijr) in Al-Ula Governorate—will be visited by committee members.

The 1972-founded World Heritage Committee is in charge of carrying out the World Heritage Convention, defining how the World Heritage Fund should be used, and allocating funding in response to requests from state parties. Representatives from 21 of the convention's party states, who were chosen by their general assemblies, make up the committee. The World Heritage Committee adopted its rules of procedure during its inaugural meeting.

Due to the tireless efforts made by the Ministry of Culture, represented by the National Commission for Education, Culture, and Science and the Heritage Commission, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's presidency and hosting of the committee and its concomitant events are a remarkable accomplishment.

The fact that the committee meeting was hosted by the Kingdom underlines both the rich cultural heritage of Saudi Arabia and the ongoing efforts to promote Saudi culture both domestically and internationally in order to meet the objectives of the National Culture Strategy for Saudi Vision 2030.


Do you want a KSA.com Email?

- Get your own KSA.com Email like [email protected]

- 50 GB webspace included

- complete privacy

- free newsletters

bottom of page