UNESCO has started discussions in Brazil regarding nominations for the list

Due to the Blanka tunnel, Prague should also be discussed...

Brasília - The committee of the UNESCO organization began discussions today in the Brazilian capital Brasília about new candidates for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The negotiations will last until August 3rd, and neither the Czech Republic nor Slovakia is applying for any new inscriptions this year. Brazilian Minister of Culture and president of the commission, Joao Luiz Silva Ferreira, during his opening speech, called for greater representativeness in the inscription of new sites on the list, as he stated that the criteria are dominated by the Western world.
    "We need to reassess the current method of valuating 'outstanding universal values', because it is sometimes confused with the values of Western cultures, and developed countries have difficulties promoting their candidates for the World Heritage List," the minister said, according to the xinhuanet.com website.
    He added that 49 percent of sites on the World Heritage and Natural Heritage List come from Europe and North America, while Latin America is represented by only 14 percent.
    Among the current thirty-two candidates are, for example, the canals of Amsterdam, the historical bazaar in Tabriz, Iran, or Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, where the USA detonated the first hydrogen bomb in 1954. The new nominations include six natural and 24 cultural sites, two of which are a combination of both categories.
    The selected sites will join the list, which currently features 890 cultural monuments and notable places from 148 countries around the world. Twelve of them are inscribed from the Czech Republic.
    The twenty-one member commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization will also assess the current state of preservation of 31 sites already on the list that are threatened by air pollution, urban development, the impact of mass tourism, wars, or natural disasters during the ten days.
    UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, in her opening speech, particularly reminded of the catastrophic earthquake in January that severely damaged the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
    "It is our duty to transform World Heritage sites into symbols of dialogue, peace, and reconciliation. When a conflict arises between the protection and development of a particular site, it is necessary to take into account the legitimate interests of all parties involved and to fulfill our commitments," Bokova said, according to the xinhuanet.com website.
    During the session, Prague is also expected to be discussed due to the construction of the Blanka tunnel.