World Heritage sites
| Signed | 16 November 1972 |
|---|---|
| Location | Paris, France |
| Effective | 17 December 1975 |
| Condition | 20 ratifications |
| Ratifiers | 192 (188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, and Palestine) |
| Depositary | Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization |
| Languages | Arabic, English, French, Russian, and Spanish |
A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some other form of significance, and they are legally protected by international treaties. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the collective interests of humanity.
More specifically, a World Heritage Site is an already classified landmark, which by way of being unique in some respect as a geographically and historically identifiable piece is of special cultural or physical significance (such as either due to hosting an ancient ruins or some historical structure, building, city, complex, desert, forest, island, lake, monument, or mountain) and symbolizes a remarkable footprint of extreme human endeavour often coupled with some act of indisputable accomplishment of humanity which then serves as a surviving evidence of its intellectual existence on the planet. With the intent of its practical conservation for posterity, which otherwise could be subject to risk from human or animal trespassing, owing to unmonitored/uncontrolled/unrestricted access or threat owing to local administrative negligence, sites are listed and demarcated by UNESCO to have been identified or recognised as a protected zone. The list is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 UNESCO member states which are elected by the UN General Assembly.
The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture and heritage of humanity. Under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World's Cultural and Natural Heritage, which was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972. Since then, 192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments.
As of July 2016, 1052 sites are listed: 814 cultural, 203 natural, and 35 mixed properties, in 165 states. According to the sites ranked by country, Italy is home to the greatest number of World Heritage Sites with 51 sites, followed by China (50), Spain (45), France (42), Germany (41), India (35), Mexico (34) and United Kingdom and British Overseas Territories (30) .
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