Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland is making a bid for one of 12 seats available next year on Unesco’s World Heritage Committee, the group that is responsible for the World Heritage sites programme.

The 21-seat committee sets technical standards, considers additions to the list of sites and oversees protection of the sites on the List. There are currently 878 of these, nine of which are in Switzerland. The number of applications to the List is rapidly growing, as the programme becomes better known.

Switzerland hopes to bring to the committee its technical expertise and international experience. The main focus of the committee today is a global strategy for the World Heritage List, to ensure that it is balanced, representative and credible, notes the federal government’s press release. If Switzerland is elected to the post, “its delegation, headed by the Swiss Permanent Delegate to Unesco, will include representatives of the Federal Office for the Environment, the Federal Office of Culture and the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.”

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