World Heritage Watch demands St Catherine Monastery be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Danger

World Heritage Watch has sent an Open Letter to UNESCO calling on the World Heritage Committee (WHC) to place the Saint Catherine Area on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger. This call stems from ongoing massive tourism developments that threaten one of the world’s most important religious and cultural places, and the continued failure of the Egyptian Government to uphold its commitments to the World Heritage Convention. The group has published extensive reports about the developments, supported by photographic documentation, and accuses Egypt to turn the sacred landscape into a tourism hub.

World Heritage Watch argues that Egypt has a long record of non-compliance with UNESCO’s requests and decisions, and that UNESCO has been too lenient with the country over more than 20 years. An earlier request to halt all activities on the site until UNESCO has assessed their impacts has never been met. Now the massive impacts on the Outstanding Universal Values of the Saint Catherine Area WH Site could no longer be tolerated, and urgent and resolute action needed to be taken.

“Egypt has continued to provide misleading, inconsistent or incomplete information to UNESCO, and it is time now that UNESCO is very clear that they are running out of patience”, says World Heritage Watch Chair Stephan Doempke who drafted the letter with experts who have decades of experience on the site and up-to-date information from local informants on the ground. “The remoteness and serenity of the area, a key value of the World Heritage, must be preserved under all circumstances in order to maintain the sacred character of the landscape and enable the spiritual retreat of the monks.”

Furthermore, the Egyptian government’s relentless pursuit of this project coincides with its nomination of Khaled El-Enany, a former Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, for the post of UNESCO Director-General. It would be ironic to have the DG overseeing the WH Convention from a country that has so signally failed to uphold that convention and not only at Saint Catherine. This presents a serious conflict of interest for UNESCO.

For now, WHW demands the following actions to be incorporated in the decision which the World Heritage Committee will adopt on their annual session this week:

1. The Committee should issue a statement that reaffirms UNESCO’s recognition of the ownership rights of the Greek Orthodox Church to the Monastery of Saint Catherine and its outlying properties.
2. The Committee should also validate the information from independent and trusted sources that the site is facing several of the WHC recognised primary factors affecting the site, including development, transportation, social, legal and institutional, that threaten its Outstanding Universal Values OUVs.
3. The WHC must insist on a joint UNESCO/ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring Mission visit the Site within 3 months of the end of the WHC meeting.
4. Depending on the results of the Reactive Monitoring Mission the WHC must then consider the possibility of inscribing the Property on the List of World Heritage in Danger and certainly if the mission fails to be conducted within the proposed time frame.