The Islamic World Heritage Committee (IWHC) announced in the final report of its 11th meeting, held at the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) headquarters, in Rabat, on 18-19 December, 2023, the inscription of 213 historical sites and cultural elements on ICESCO’s Islamic World Heritage List. These heritage sites and elements have been included either on the final or tentative lists of tangible and intangible heritage, bringing the total number of elements inscribed on ICESCO’s List to 634 sites and elements in 45 Member States.

Following the examination of Member States’ files, the IWHC has adopted the inscription of 50 historical sites and cultural elements on the final list in 9 Member States, mainly the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Republic of Tatarstan, Sultanate of Oman, State of Palestine, Republic of Cameroon, State of Libya, Kingdom of Morocco, Islamic Republic of Mauritania, in addition to the inscription of 90 files of world heritage in 37 countries. Furthermore, the IWHC decided to inscribe 73 files from 9 Member States in the Tentative List of Heritage in the Islamic World.

The decisions of the IWHC in its 11th meeting included the adoption of the activity report of the Islamic World Heritage Center, the strategy on the fight against trafficking of cultural property in the Islamic world, the living human treasures program, ICESCO’s guide for protecting, preserving and promoting the Islamic world heritage and the project on preserving the minarets of the Islamic World and preparing a nomination file for their inscription on the heritage lists.

At the end of the meeting, the IWHC issued a set of recommendations, mainly implementing a number of programs to raise the awareness of youth about the importance of cultural heritage in the Islamic world, holding intensive training workshops for workers in the field, calling upon Member States to submit more files on heritage sites and elements for inscription on the Islamic World Heritage List, entrusting ICESCO’s General Directorate with the mission of preparing and updating a strategy to introduce heritage sites, monuments and elements, inscribed on the Final Islamic World Heritage List, forming a working group of IWHC’s members to support Hajj’ Routes to Mecca and historical mosques as well as promoting ICESCO’s initiative on green heritage and its initiative to establish a mechanism to monitor and protect heritage elements against the impact of humans, disasters and climate change.