What it Takes for a Site to be Inscribe on the UNESCO World Heritage List

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The process required for a site to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List is long and complicated. It has four main steps, each of which are a process in themselves: placement on a tentative list, submission of a nomination file, evaluation by an Advisory Body, and a final decision by the World Heritage Committee. The entire process usually takes about a year and a half, but can vary depending of the time taken for each step (World Heritage Ireland, 2010).

In order to submit sites to the World Heritage List, a country must first sign the World Heritage Convention, thereby committing to protecting their natural and culture heritage. After that, the State Party, in Ireland’s case, the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, creates an inventory of the natural and cultural sites within the country (World Heritage Ireland, 2010). From these sites or combinations of sites, the State Party creates a Tentative List.

This list consists of sites believed to have “outstanding universal value” and that meet at least one of the ten criteria outlined in the revised Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (2012). This list is very important, because the World Heritage Committee can only consider nominations for sites already on the Tentative List (UNESCO, 2014). Also, the Tentative List lasts for five to ten years, before the State Party must update it; of course, the State Party can update it as often as the choose. This allows for a constant reevaluation of the sites on the Tentative List to determine if any should be added or removed, or if any are ready for the next step of the inscription process: nomination.

In order for the State Party to nominate a site, they must first com...

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UNESCO, 2014. The Criteria for Selection. [online] Whc.unesco.org. Available at: [Accessed 18 Apr. 2014].

UNESCO, 2014. The World Heritage Committee. [online] Whc.unesco.org. Available at: [Accessed 21 Apr. 2014].

UNESCO, 2014. World Heritage List Nominations. [online] Whc.unesco.org. Available at: [Accessed 18 Apr. 2014].

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