World Heritage Centre, Paris

The World Heritage Centre provides professional and administrative support for the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and is based in Paris. The Centre was set up in 1992.

The Centre has several other areas of work. They help Governments to prepare nominations for new World Heritage Sites and maintain the official archive of nominations. They also run World Heritage projects and initiatives in areas such as education and youth work, and training.

The Centre deals with any information from the public, sites or governments about potential threats to World Heritage Sites. The Centre may ask the site in question for more information, and will then pass this information on to the World Heritage Committee.

Other duties of the Centre include:

• Arranging technical seminars and workshops
• Updating the World Heritage List and database
• Developing teaching materials to raise awareness of the World Heritage concept
• Keeping the public informed of World Heritage issues
• Working with the multi-media industry to produce World Heritage documentary and educational films, digital publications, books, and other material