Unesco grants 42 new sites World Heritage status - including Anzac memorials

Anzac memorials have been recognised with World Heritage status in a 2023 committee decision. Photo / Greg Bowker

Unesco has announced many new additions to the list of World Heritage sites, with 42 new places being anointed with the status.

The list aims to highlight the world’s most valuable historic sites and ensure the protection of their natural and cultural heritage (from various influences, including climate change, overtourism and building developments, among many other issues).

One significant addition to the list is the funerary and memory sites of World War I. Set in the north of Belgium and east of France, the 139 memorial sites grouped together by Unesco’s definition mark the Western Front, where German and Allied forces fought between 1914 and 1918. Within those sites, there are 133,027 Anzacs commemorated from across two World Wars, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

This inclusion follows a wider theme of the committee decisions, as the officials have looked to include more sites of commemoration (broadening the types of places that can receive Unesco World Heritage status). Memorial and museum sites marking major events within Mongolia, Argentina, Rwanda and a few other countries have also been added to the list.

Unesco states that in order for a site to be included on the list, it “must be of outstanding universal value”. The site must also meet at least one out of 10 points of selection criteria. It could represent a masterpiece of human creative genius, bear a unique testimony to a cultural tradition or civilisation, or be a site that represents a significant stage in human history or contains superlative natural phenomena to qualify (among many other potential principles).

The full list of additions includes global sites, some of which are significant locations for travellers and tourists - some for their significance in marking a specific place and time (like memorial or museum sites), some for their unique and important contribution to natural landscapes and some for their ancient existence.

The UN committee, meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has agreed to inscribe 42 new cultural and natural properties on to the list. Additional sites could be added to the list as the meeting in Riyadh continues - it is expected to close on September 25.

The committee has also met to discuss the listing of World Heritage sites to add to the danger list. Venice escaped inclusion, following an earlier recommendation from a board of experts that it should be included to encourage the preservation of the historic city. New sites in Ukraine were officially added to the World Heritage in Danger list - Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the historic centre of L’viv. Unesco says this is “due to the threat of destruction the Russian offensive poses”.