Periodic Reporting

In 1997 the UNESCO World Heritage Committee agreed a new programme of regular reporting to monitor how the 1972 World Heritage Convention was being applied in different regions of the world.

A six-year cycle of reporting was designed to cover the five geographical areas into which UNESCO has placed world heritage sites to promote regional co-operation. These are:

• Arab States
• Africa
• Asia & the Pacific
• Latin America and the Caribbean
• Europe and North America

The purpose of the reports are:

• To provide an assessment of the application of the World Heritage Convention by each country;
• To provide an assessment as to whether the World Heritage values of the sites inscribed on the World Heritage List are being maintained over time;
• To provide up-dated information about the World Heritage sites to record possible changes in the circumstances and in the state of conservation of sites; and,
• To provide a mechanism for regional co-operation and for an exchange of information and experiences between countries concerning the implementation of the Convention and the conservation of World Heritage.

Europe and North America is the final group to go into the Periodic Reporting process and the final reports went to the World Heritage Committee in 2005/6. The UK sites, including Bath, submitted their forms to the government who put them together and forwarded them to UNESCO in Autumn 2005. The UK periodic reporting process is being co-ordinated jointly by English Heritage and ICOMOS-UK, in partnership with central government.