In the direction of strengthening the aspirations and priorities of Southeast Europe within the framework of the development of the Regional Action Plan for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, consultations and capacity-building activities were carried out with national focal points responsible for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention and the Third Cycle of Periodic Reporting in Southeast Europe, in Kotor, Montenegro, from 24 to 25 October 2023.
The main objective of this initiative, organized jointly by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the UNESCO Regional Office for Science and Culture in Europe as a part of the Third Periodic Reporting Cycle of the World Heritage Convention of Europe and North America, was to structure and consolidate the sub-region for the contribution to the Regional Action Plan for Europe and North America. The representative of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments, Robert Stergar, an architecture engineer by profession, Expert Advisor for Architectural and Archaeological Heritage, participated actively in the work.
A Draft Regional Action Plan for Europe and North America was presented and will be submitted to the World Heritage Committee at its 46th session to be held in 2024, and is intended to guide the implementation of the Convention throughout the region over the following six years. The document was compiled on the basis of periodic reports submitted by the countries from the region until 31 July 2023, and will be presented in the form of a draft at the meeting of all national focal points in the region, which the World Heritage Centre is organizing from 19 to 21 December 2023 in the UNESCO headquarters, and will be further developed after that.
This workshop is an important step in the preparation of the Regional Action Plan, which should enable the priorities of Southeast Europe to be properly reflected in it. For this purpose, over 20 participants gathered from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, the Republic of Italy, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey.
The workshop was an opportunity to present the available tools for strengthening the implementation of the World Heritage Convention by experts from ICOMOS and ICCROM, and to determine priorities in terms of capacity-building in Southeast Europe.
The two-day activities were led and moderated by the organizers’ representatives:
Berte de Sancristóbal, Head of Europe and North American Unit, UNESCO World Heritage Centre,
Marije Liouliou, Associate Program Specialist, Europe and North America Unit, UNESCO World Heritage Centre,
Leticia Leitao, UNESCO Lead Expert for the Third Periodic Reporting Cycle in Europe and North America,
Ana Aleksova, ICCROM Expert,
Matteo Rosati, Culture Unit, UNESCO Regional Office for Science and Culture in Europe,
Siniša Šešum, Head of the Sarajevo Antenna of the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe.
