Paris, November 7, 2011 – Malaysia was elected a seat in the World Heritage Committee (WHC) after obtaining votes from 96 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) member countries. The election took place during the 18th General Assembly of State Parties to the World Heritage Convention held at the Unesco headquarters in Paris on Monday, November 7, 2011.
Malaysia was selected as member of the committee for a period of four years beginning next year, together with eight other new members namely Algeria, Colombia, Germany, Japan, India, Serbia, Senegal and Qatar. Each country will serve a mandate of four years which takes effect as of 11 November 2011.
A dinner to celebrate Malaysia’s victory was held at the Blue Elephant Restaurant Paris on Monday, November 7, 2011 attended by H.E. Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Zainal, Ambassador of Malaysia to France; Tuan Haji Ali bin Ab. Ghani, Permanent Delegate of Malaysia to Unesco and Dato’Zuraina Majid, Malaysia’s World Heritage Commissioner.
The 21-member of the WHC as of 11 November are as follows:
1. Algeria
2. Cambodia
3. Colombia
4. Estonia
5. France
6. Germany
7. India
8. Iraq
9. Japan
10. Malaysia
11. Mali
12. Mexico
13. Qatar
14. Russian Federation
15. Senegal
16. South Africa
17. Switzerland
18. Thailand
19. United Arab Emirates
20. Serbia
21. Ethiopia
The World Heritage committee meets once a year to discuss the state of conservation of sites inscribed on the World Heritage list, and add new sites to the list.
