Here is 1 Million Women's weekly Reef Brief : A quick round-up of Great Barrier Reef-related news and policy developments, part of our campaign: IM Declaring the Reef in Danger – which reached over 17,500 signatories during the past week. This week we take a special look at the key international bodies that will decide the Reef’s World Heritage status – in danger, or not? The two-week countdown to the 2014 annual meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has begun, with delegates from the 21 nations that currently make up the Committee gathering in Qatar from June 15-25.
1. WORLD HERITAGE COMMITTEE
The key decision-making body for World Heritage listings is being led by a woman during 2014 – the top job changes every year - and 1 Million Women’s appeal for the Reef to be declared ‘In Danger’ is directed to her first and foremost.
You can read more about the Sheikha in this newspaper story from the New York Times.
The countries currently represented on the World Heritage Committee, whose delegates are deciding the status of the Reef, are the following: Algeria, Colombia, Croatia, Finland, Germany, India, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Senegal, Serbia, Turkey, Vietnam.
This is the official UNESCO World Heritage Committee webpage for the Great Barrier Reef and you also can read more about the Committee itself here .
2. UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, or UNESCO, provides the secretariat for the World Heritage Committee and also technical advice on heritage and scientific matters.
UNESCO also is led by a woman, its Director-General Ms. Irina Bokova, who 1 Million Women has written to as well, urging the strongest action to defend the Reef and its Outstanding Universal Value - you can learn more about Ms. Bokova, who comes from Bulgaria, here .
3. IUCN
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or the IUCN, is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental network, perhaps best known for publishing the annual RED List of Threatened Species, identifying the world’s rarest and most engendered flora and fauna.
IUCN works closely with UNESCO and the World Heritage Committee, and its long-serving Director-General, Julia Marton-Lefèvre, is the third woman being engaged through 1 Million Women’s campaign.
4. OUR CAMPAIGN BUILDS
This week we are sending an update on our campaign to the women heads of the World Heritage Committee and its key advisers UNESCO and the IUCN, ahead of this month’s meeting in Qatar.
This meeting could move decisively to declare the Reef as ‘World Heritage in Danger’. More likely, however, it will continue its three-year process to put the future of the Reef under intense scrutiny, maintaining pressure on the Australian Government, and then will formally revisit the ‘in Danger’ question in June 2015.
In the meantime 1 Million Women has no doubt: The Reef is IN DANGER and we have to act now to save it.
Read last weeks Reef Brief by clicking here.
We are urging the World Heritage Committee to protect the Great Barrier Reef by officially declaring it ‘World Heritage in Danger’. We are taking this message to the 3 key international decision-makers who ail influence the fate of the Reef. This is the most powerful action we can take to ensure its protection.
Please add your name to support this action.
