17 July 2018
Bahrain Culture Authority’s Festive Honoring Ceremony for The 42nd World Heritage Committee Meeting’s Supporters at Bahrain National Museum
Bahrain Authority for Culture & Antiquities held a special festive honoring ceremony for its staff and volunteers who have contributed to the success of the 42nd World Heritage Committee meeting. The event was held on 15 July 2018 at Bahrain National Museum, in the presence of H.E Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, President of Bahrain Authority for Culture & Antiquities.
The honoring festive event reflected BACA’s strong belief in the genuine talent of Bahraini human resources personnel who excelled and proved their creative minds during World Heritage Committee meeting, the second most important event of UNESCO after the General Assembly.
Speaking for the occasion, H.E Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa “The high performance, intrinsically motivated by your excellent work, sent a message from Bahrain to the world, echoed by international delegates coming to Manama to discover the authentic culture and historical universal heritage of Bahrain”. H.E added saying: “ Culture is our shared legacy, our home country, so truly; sincerely, From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone who has supported this big event”. H.E argued that BACA’s very professional qualified employees are a source of inspiration for achieving increasing cultural and historical bright events. WHC is a testament of the local Bahraini qualifications and skills that align with the international standards, H.E added.
H.E has pointed out that the 42nd World Heritage Committee meeting session comes as part of bigger 2018 strategy plan by BACA, including the celebrations of Muharraq as the Capital of Islamic Culture, the Inauguration of Pearling: testimony of an Island Economy, a UNESCO World Heritage List, next November. The Event is held uunder the High Patronage of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, May God Protect Him, and will be attended by Bahrain’s guests, ministers of culture from Arab and Islamic countries.
During the ceremony, certificates of appreciation were presented to all staff and volunteers, reflecting BACA’s keenness to boost the spirits of its employees and encourage more hard work and perseverance with regard to future endeavours.
Worth to mention that 42nd meeting of the World Heritage Committee, was held under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa , May God Protect Him. The meeting, in Manama from 24-June-4 July, at the “UNESCO Village”, a special temporary complex set up by BACA in the vicinity of Ritz Carlton Hotel that is supporting this event. In addition, “Ammar Basheir Studio for Art , the Creative Design” bureau masterminded the elaboration and idea design of the “ UNESCO Village”.
Worth to mention that the Kingdom of Bahrain after winning the vast majority of votes during the World Heritage Committee (WHC) Presidency session, held during the 21st session of the General Assembly of State Parties to the 1972 World Heritage Convention, was nominated as the guest country to hold the 42nd World Heritage Committee meeting 2018, which was chaired by H.E Shaikha Haya bint Rashid Al-Khalifa. Presidency of the World Heritage Committee was also granted to Bahrain in 2011 when H.E Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Culture at that time, was nominated as its Chairperson. The representatives of 139 states and over 2,000 experts in the field of cultural and natural heritage have attended the 42nd Session of the World Heritage Committee. Indeed, the Committee considered the possibility of including 28 additional sites on the World Heritage List and examined the status of conservation of 157 sites that are already on the list. Accordingly, the Committee added 19 sites to the 1,073 sites already listed on the World Heritage List, bringing the total number of World Heritage sites to 1,092 in 167 different countries around the world.
