AAmatters at the World Heritage Committee session of 2015

On behalf of AAmatters, Nicole Bolomey as an observer attended the World Heritage Committee session, which this years took place in Bonn, Germany, from 28 June – 8 July. The session was an excellent opportunity to increase our knowledge and interaction with the 1972 World Heritage Convention, which is relevant in many of our activities in Africa, not least in Zanzibar. Nicole was present in Bonn for a week to attend sessions on the state of conservation of World Heritage properties, including Stone Town of Zanzibar, policy debates on heritage & sustainable development, events on Historic Urban Landscapes, an event by the African World Heritage Fund, and other interesting occasions. Antoni Folkers joined her for a day to jointly give technical support to the delegation of Zanzibar in preparing for the challenging debate in the plenary session on Tuesday 30 June. We also used our presence to meet various people relevant to our endeavour in Africa, be it from the Netherland delegation, the Zanzibari delegation, the World Heritage Centre or other relevant institutions.

Nicole reports on a few highlights from the week: