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23rd ICCROM General Assembly
Pursuant to a Decision by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Dr. Safet Halilović, and accreditation signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dr. Mladen Ivanić, the representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 23rd session of the ICCROM General Assembly was Amra Hadžimuhamedović.
Part of the session was also attended by Sabahka Rađo, charge d’affaires at the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Rome, in the capacity of observer.
The 23rd session of the ICCROM General Assembly was held in Rome from 19 to 21 November 2003, with the following agenda:
Wednesday, 19 November 2003
- registration of delegates and handover of accreditation
- Official inauguration of session
Ana Cepero Acan, interim chair of the General Assembly
Nicholas P. Stanley-Price, Director General, ICCROM
Mr. Jacques Diouf, Director-General, FAO
Minja Yang, UNESCO
Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage
Italian Foreign Ministry
Representative of the city of Rome
2. Acceptance of observers
3. Welcome to new Member States
4. ICCROM Award
5. Election of president and three vice-presidents
6. 23rd session of the General Assembly
7. Election of committee members
a. Accreditations committee
b. Committee for candidates for membership of the ICCROM Council
8. Adoption of agenda
9. ICCROM Council recommendations relating to Art.10. of the ICCROM Statute
10. Adoption of minutes of 22nd session
11. Report from the Council
a. Report of current chair of the Council
b. Review of auditor's report for 2000-2001
12. and for 2002,
a. Financial report June 2002-June 2003.
b. Long-term financial strategy
c. Resolution on financial matters
13. Introduction of candidates for the Council
14. Report on programme of activities for 2002-2003.
a. Director General's report
b. Report on activities of ICCROM staff
15. Outline programme of activities and budget for 2004-2005
16. Amendments to ICCROM Statute and Rules of Procedure for the General Assembly
17. Election of new members of ICCROM Council
18. Delegates' reports
19. Results of election
23rd General Assembly and Closing of the Session GA23/12(*)
20. Other business
21. Adoption of reports of 23rd ICCROM session
Decision of the ICCROM General Assembly:
The General Assembly agreed that 29 observers could attend the session
The General Assembly welcomed the accession of the following ICCROM member states:
· Azerbaijan
· Botswana
· Mongolia
· Uruguay
· Zambia,
and the declaration by Oman acceding to the ICCROM Statute, to enter into force in December 2003.
The General Assembly also accepted the membership of Ecuador and Mali, pursuant to Art. 2.3 of the Statute.
The ICCROM Award, granted every two years to persons of special merit in the field of conservation, protection and restoration of cultural heritage who have also made an important contribution to the development of ICCROM, was awarded to Dr. Colin Pearson (Canberra, Australia)
It was resolved unanimously that the session be chaired by Mr Abdolrasool VATANDOUST HAGHIGHI (Iran) as president of the ICCROM General Assembly; the following were elected as vice-presidents:
· Ms. Maria Claudia LOPEZ SORZANO (Colombia)
· Ms. Beatrix KASTALY (Hungary)
· Mr. Sadatoshi MIURA (Japan)
The following were elected to the Accreditations Committee:
· Ziva DOMINGOS (Angola)
· Weiwei SHENG (China)
· Maire MATTINEN (Finland)
· Bruno JOSEPH (Madagascar)
· Jerome CASTRO (Philippines),
and to the Committee to assess candidates for membership of the Council:
· Orysia LUCHAK (Canada)
· Sophocles HADJISAVVAS (Cyprus)
· Abraham BORG (Malta)
· Unni GRONN (Norway)
· Lazar SUMANOV (The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)
The agenda was adopted without amendments.
During the course of the agenda, five resolutions were adopted relating to the status of Member States who had failed to meet their financial dues to ICCROM. Chad, Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Nicaragua and Peru lost their voting rights and the right to propose members for the Council. In addition, Chad, Congo, Gambia and Nicaragua were required either to submit a debt repayment plan, or to pay their debts in full, by 31 December 2003, failing which they would be required to withdraw from membership of ICCROM.
In the light of the Argentina delegate’s explanation of the current difficult situation in Argentina, and the fact that Argentina is currently paying off its arrears, delegates agreed that the proposed sanctions should not be applied to Argentina.
The Vietnam delegation asked for its 1978-1996 dues to be written off, given the political situation in Vietnam at that time and the fact that it was closed to ICCROM. It was resolved that the Director General should begin negotiations with Vietnam on the method of paying off the dues and the way to resolve the problem.
In the light of former Yugoslavia’s dues to ICCROM, and the fact that its membership of ICCROM has been taken over by Serbia & Montenegro, the General Assembly resolved that Serbia & Montenegro would retain its membership of ICCROM until the United Nations adopts a resolution. In the meantime, Serbia & Montenegro agreed to pay the membership fee from 21 November 2000.
All the agenda items were unanimously adopted in a very transparent way with the extremely systematically prepared material that had been made available to delegates in advance.
It is particularly worth emphasizing the very well structured report on ICCROM’s activities in the preceding two year period which, given its readability, transparency, excellent layout and substantiality – both content and form, in other words – could be a model of reporting.
The programme for the next two-year period was also the reflection of a very systematic approach to the topicalization of problems relating to various parts of the world and the various circumstances in which the heritage finds itself.
The General Assembly authorized the Director General to carry out the programme of activities for the next two year period with a budget of 6.766.660 Euros, based on the contributions of Member States increased by 5.2%.
The following were elected as members of the ICCROM Council for a 4 year term:
· Chiraporn ARANYANARK (Thailand)
· Rizvan BAYRAMOV (Azerbaijan)
· Mourad BETROUNI (Algeria)
· Charles COSTAIN (Canada)
· Beatrix KASTALY (Hungary)
· Byong-Mo KIM (Republic of Korea)
· Zhou LU (China)
· Zbigniew MYCZKOWSKI (Poland)
· Isabelle PALLOT-FROSSARD (France)
· Nelly M. ROBLES GARCIA (Mexico)
· Isaiah M. SHUMBA (Zimbabwe)
· Satoshi YAMATO (Japan)
On the final day, the representative of BiH made an official statement, attached in English to this report.
During the unofficial part of the Assembly, between sessions, meetings were held with:
1. The ICCROM Director General, who expressed his complete readiness to step up cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina and even talked of creating some special funds for the purpose. The Director General also notified the BiH representative that since 2000 (when BiH became a formal member of ICCROM) one of ICCROM’s seminars had been attended by Milijana Okilj, an architect from Banja Luka, and Sanjin Lugić, a conservator from Sarajevo;
2. Marc Leanen, former ICCROM director, now active in Belgium in several international institutions;
3. Andrea Urlandova, former director of the ARC course and associate on the Study of the Protection of the Architectural Heritage at the Academia Istropolitana, member of the World Heritage Committee, who expressed her willingness to cooperate with the Commission to Preserve National Monuments in all areas and particularly as an adviser during the drafting of applications to include monuments on the World Heritage List;
4. Miljenko Domijan, delegate of the Republic of Croatia and designer of the reconstruction of the church of St John in Podmilačje, with whom it was agreed that full documentation for the reconstruction of the church would be supplied, as well as future cooperation and exchange of experiences;
5. Lazar Šumanov, ICOMOS chair for Macedonia and rapporteur for the candidacy of the Old Bridge and historic centre of Mostar to the World Heritage Committee. Dr. Šumanov told the BiH representative that Mostar’s candidacy was on hold, because it was the view of the Committee that it could be designated only after the reconstruction of the bridge;
6. The Director of the UNESCO Office in Venice, who told the BiH representative about the regional conference to be held next year in Mostar, funded by the Government of Italy and prepared by the UNESCO Office. It was suggested that the Commission be a partner in preparing the Conference;
7. A representative of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Italy, who plans to make a working visit to Sarajevo in the near future. It was suggested that details of cooperation between the Commission and the Italian ministry be agreed during the visit;
8. With ICCROM staff members on questions of the technical assistance Bosnia and Herzegovina could receive from ICCROM, how to use material and publications in the ICCROM library, and how regular information on ICCROM activities and plans is provided;
9. with delegates of Serbia & Montenegro, Italy, Botswana, Azerbaijan, Australia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Cyprus, and particularly with new Council members, on matters of common interest and possible future cooperation.
The representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina gave everyone with whom she had a separate meeting the brochure and CD on the Heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina at risk, and gave two copies of the brochure to the ICCROM library.
Conclusions:
1. The 23rd session is the first session of the ICCROM General Assembly at which BiH had an official delegate;
2. The presentation by the BiH delegate and the material distributed aroused the expected attention and many bilateral contacts were established;
3. The ICCROM Director General was told that cooperation would be stepped up, as a result of which it is vital:
· to define BiH’s needs in relation to the ICCROM programme of activities for the next two-year period;
· to coordinate the nomination of candidates for all future seminars where ICCROM will require attendance fees;
· to take an active part in preparing the ICCROM forum on the heritage and war damage, planned for 2005;
· to forward requests for ICCROM technical assistance to the Commission for this year and next.
4. It would be desirable to plan a visit by members of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments to ICCROM headquarters and to agree in direct contact with the Director General all the options for the closest possible cooperation.
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