With a support of 121 votes, Mexico was elected as a member of the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), for the period 2021-2025.
In a statement, the Secretariats of Culture and Foreign Relations highlighted that the support of the international community in favor of the Mexican candidacy is a recognition of its role as an international benchmark in promoting countless cooperation programs for the conservation of Mexico’s world heritage. , Latin America and the Caribbean.
Mexico has 35 properties inscribed on the World Heritage List (27 cultural, 6 natural and 2 mixed).
As part of the World Heritage Committee, Mexico will seek to share the experience of its institutions in the fields of cultural and natural heritage, in terms of conservation of the common goods of humanity, as well as the challenges it has faced, in addition to prevention. of future problems. In addition, it will seek synergies with other Unesco cultural conventions, so that there is an articulated vision that encourages heritage conservation efforts in a comprehensive manner.
The World Heritage Committee is responsible for the implementation of the 1972 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and has the final decision on the inscription of a property on the Unesco World Heritage List. It is made up of 21 States that are elected during the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention.
“The support of the Unesco member countries to our country not only strengthens its presence in the important cultural avenue of the international scene, but it will also be able to assist this organization in the old and new challenges it faces, the consequences of the contingency. Covid-19, climate change, technological and digital transformations, as well as the illicit trafficking of cultural property and the need to face discrimination and racial hatred, ”the agencies highlighted.
