Vietnamese delegation attends the 24th session of the General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention which took place, Paris, France, November 22, 2023

The election took place in Paris, France, on November 22 within the 24th session of the General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention.

Securing 121 out of 171 valid votes, Viet Nam ranked second among nine elected countries from five regions.

This is the second time Viet Nam has been elected to the most important executive body for culture of UNESCO, said Ha Kim Ngoc, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is also Chairman of the Viet Nam National Commission for UNESCO.

Ambassador Le Thi Hong Van, Permanent Representative of Viet Nam to UNESCO, stressed that as a member of the World Heritage Committee, Viet Nam would have favorable conditions to contribute more to the perfection and implementation of the targets and priorities of the World Heritage Convention, and share experience in the harmonisation of world heritage preservation and development.

The Southeast Asian country will join 20 other member states of the committee to supervise the implementation of the Convention, protect, preserve, and bring into play the values of 1,199 world heritage elements around the globe, and consider the recognition of new ones to uphold, promote, and pass down historical and cultural values to future generations and help with sustainable development in the world, Le noted.

Earlier, Viet Nam was elected to the UNESCO Executive Council for the 2021-2025 tenure, Vice President of the 42nd session of the UNESCO's General Conference, Vice Chairman of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions for the 2021-2025 tenure, member of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage for the 2022-2026 tenure and member of the World Heritage Committee for the 2023-2027 tenure.

The World Heritage Committee is one of the most important executive bodies of UNESCO, which has the right to decide on key issues related to the recognition of world cultural and natural heritage sites; and review and evaluate the conservation status of world heritage sites globally.

The committee is set to decide on policies, budget, guidelines and development orientation of the World Heritage Convention. This is the Convention with the largest number of members of UNESCO with 194 countries.